Texas activists get 450 years in first Trump antifa sentencing

Eight North Texas activists received a combined 450 years in prison after federal judges in Fort Worth imposed the first sentences the Justice Department has tied to Donald Trump’s September 2025 executive order against antifa. The penalties capped a case built around a July 4, 2025 protest and shooting at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where prosecutors said a police officer was wounded in the neck.

Benjamin Hanil Song received 100 years. Maricela Rueda was sentenced to 70 years. Cameron Arnold, Savanna Batten, Zachary Evetts, Bradford Morris and Elizabeth Soto each received 50 years. Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada received 30 years. The Justice Department said the case marked the first sentencing of defendants affiliated with antifa after Trump’s order.

The underlying prosecutions have become a test of how far the government can stretch terrorism law to reach protest activity. Prosecutors said the defendants wore all-black clothing, used the Signal encrypted messaging app and took part in a riot that included weapons, explosives, obstruction, material support for terrorists and attempted murder of an Alvarado police officer. Only Song was accused of firing a gun. Sanchez-Estrada was not accused of attempted murder or material support to terrorism; he was convicted of obstructing the investigation by moving a box of antifascist zines after the protest.

That detail has drawn close attention because his sentence came out of conduct far removed from the shooting itself. His lawyers argued that punishment should fit the crime, not the politics. The case has also raised fresh questions about whether a decentralized political identity with no official leaders can be treated like a criminal organization for the purpose of sweeping terror charges.

A federal jury in Fort Worth convicted nine defendants in March 2026 after a 12-day trial that featured more than 45 witnesses and over 210 exhibits. Seven additional defendants later pleaded guilty to one count of providing material support to terrorists. The Department of Justice has described the proceedings as a major victory in its campaign against left-wing activism.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton moved quickly to harden that campaign. In October 2025, he said his office would launch undercover investigations into what he called radical leftist organizations and said the effort would build on Trump’s executive order. His office described antifa as a clear and present danger, even as the movement remains decentralized and without formal leaders.

The sentences land after a political atmosphere in which violence has been used to justify wider crackdowns on speech and organizing. In this case, the government did not just target the shooting itself. It used the aftermath to test a broader theory of criminal liability for ideology, symbolism and protest infrastructure.