{"id":179309,"date":"2026-02-25T07:23:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T07:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/179309\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T07:23:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T07:23:15","slug":"trial-begins-for-group-accused-of-antifa-links-in-shooting-at-texas-immigration-detention-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/179309\/","title":{"rendered":"Trial begins for group accused of antifa links in shooting at Texas immigration detention center"},"content":{"rendered":"

DALLAS \u2013 Federal prosecutors told jurors Tuesday that a shooting outside a Texas immigration detention center<\/a> last year was carried out by members of antifa, opening a closely watched trial that lawyers for the accused say seeks to wrongly punish a group of political demonstrators. <\/p>\n

Nine people have pleaded not guilty over their alleged involvement in what prosecutors called an attack on the Prairieland Detention Center near Dallas last July, when a police officer was shot in the neck and wounded. <\/p>\n

Eight of the nine face a charge of providing material support to terrorists, which follows President Donald Trump\u2019s order to designate the decentralized movement known as antifa as a domestic terrorist organization<\/a>. Most of the defendants also face multiple charges, including attempted murder of a law officer.<\/a><\/p>\n

Lawyers for the defendants say the accused were not members of antifa and were instead taking part in a \u201cnoise demonstration” that included fireworks on July 4, 2025, to show support for immigrants inside the center.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake no mistake, there\u2019s nothing peaceful about what happened on July Fourth,\u201d prosecutor Shawn Smith told jurors.<\/p>\n

The trial is expected to last upward of three weeks. Several defendants face up to live in prison if convicted.<\/p>\n

According to the indictment, a group of people clad in black and wearing masks, some carrying firearms and wearing body armor, shot fireworks toward the center and vandalized vehicles and a guard shed. Then, as local officers responded, one person yelled, \u201cget to the rifles\u201d and opened fire, striking the officer, the indictment said.<\/p>\n

Smith said that while it was defendant Benjamin Song who opened fire, several other defendants are also charged with attempted murder of a law officer and discharging a firearm because it was foreseeable from the group’s planning that that could happen. Song\u2019s attorney did not give an opening statement Tuesday. <\/p>\n

The officer who was shot, Alvarado police Lt. Thomas Gross, was the first witness to testify Tuesday. He said he was responding at about 11 p.m. to a call from the detention center when he saw that there was graffiti on a guard shed and a stop sign and noticed a guard chasing a person clad in black with their face covered.<\/p>\n

Gross said he got out of his vehicle and saw another person, also clad in black with their face covered and carrying a rifle. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point the scene is becoming extremely chaotic,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He told jurors he was shot with a round that went into his shoulder and out of his neck. <\/p>\n

Defense attorneys told jurors that their clients could only be judged for their own individual actions. \u201cIt\u2019s a trial within a trial,\u201d said attorney Chris Tolbert, who is representing Savanna Batten.<\/p>\n

He said his client didn\u2019t bring a firearm, spray paint or fireworks to the center. He said that while the government claims that her book club \u2014 named for the anarchist Emma Goldman \u2014 is a recruiting ground for antifa, it\u2019s just a book club.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not a member of antifa, she\u2019s not providing material support to terrorists,\u201d Tolbert said.<\/p>\n

Short for \u201canti-fascists,\u201d antifa is not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations. FBI Director Kash Patel has said the charges in Texas are the first time a material support to terrorism charge has targeted people he said were antifa members.<\/p>\n

James Luster, the attorney for defendant Autumn Hill, said Hill has a deep conviction for people she feels are marginalized, including immigrants. Luster said that after watching fireworks being shot into the sky, Hill left before the police arrived. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was never supposed to come to this,\u201d Luster said.<\/p>\n

Several people have already pleaded guilty<\/a> to providing material support to terrorists after being accused of supporting antifa related to the July 4 shooting. They face up to 15 years in prison at sentencing.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2013 Federal prosecutors told jurors Tuesday that a shooting outside a Texas immigration detention center last year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[72006,72007,145,72009,72011,9421,287,72008,27,29,28,72010,1499,7533],"class_list":{"0":"post-179309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-benjamin-song","9":"tag-chris-tolbert","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-emma-goldman","12":"tag-james-luster","13":"tag-kash-patel","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-shawn-smith","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-texas-headlines","18":"tag-texas-news","19":"tag-thomas-gross","20":"tag-u-s-news","21":"tag-washington-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}