{"id":443960,"date":"2026-09-22T11:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T11:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/443960\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T11:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T11:18:07","slug":"socialist-communist-groups-coordinate-promote-spontaneous-anti-ice-protests-in-austin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/443960\/","title":{"rendered":"Socialist, communist groups coordinate, promote ‘spontaneous’ anti-ICE protests in Austin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Media accounts reported that protesters\u00a0\u201cquickly organized\u201d\u00a0a spontaneous anti-ICE protest at an Austin, Texas, intersection following the shooting of a Venezuelan man by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But a\u00a0Fox News Digital investigation\u00a0shows that the protests are being promoted and organized by a coordinated network of far-left socialist and communist groups, including the Democratic Socialists of America, the\u00a0Freedom Road Socialist Organization\u00a0and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which works closely with nonprofits funded by Neville Roy Singham, a communist American-born tech tycoon living in Shanghai.<\/p>\n

Congressional lawmakers are investigating the Singham network for allegedly fomenting the image of \u201cchaos\u201d in the US, including anti-ICE protests from Minneapolis to the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, NJ Sure enough, Sunday evening, BreakThrough News, a pro-communist media platform operated by BreakThrough BT Media, a nonprofit funded by Singham,\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0a \u201cBREAKING NEWS\u201d report from Texas with the headline: \u201cAustin erupts in protest\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The shooting occurred Sunday afternoon at about 12:56 p.m. Central Time near Anderson Square and Research Boulevard in Austin. Authorities said an ICE officer shot Wilber Rafael Garc\u00e9s P\u00e9rez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan national, during a traffic stop. <\/p>\n

Far-left groups coordinated spontaneous Austin protests after ICE agents shot Wilber Rafael Garc\u00e9s P\u00e9rez. Heidi Ann Clark via Storyful<\/p>\n

Perez was hospitalized in serious but stable condition and later placed in federal custody. Local officials said Austin police weren\u2019t involved in the shooting, which is being investigated by federal authorities with assistance from the FBI.<\/p>\n

About four hours after the shooting, local socialist and communist activists were already at the scene, waving flags of Mexico, pushing the incident through their national and Texas social-media networks and broadcasting footage of the growing crowd and confrontations with Austin police.<\/p>\n

The headlines and descriptions of the demonstration have focused on the protest\u2019s anti-ICE message without identifying the political or ideological infrastructure that helped organize and promote the event. <\/p>\n

People protest near the site where a federal immigration officer shot and wounded a man in Austin, Texas, on Monday. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Local media headlines included KVUE reporting that\u00a0\u201cNorth Austin ICE shooting draws large protest as tensions escalate,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0describing a spontaneous outburst: \u201cWhat began with a handful of people gathered across the street from the scene grew into a much larger crowd over the course of several hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the details of the Austin protest are important because they reveal that the demonstrations represent more than an unplanned gathering of residents responding to a breaking-news event, much like the protests in Minnesota and New Jersey and Minnesota.<\/p>\n

The shooting provided the immediate trigger, but the mobilization was amplified by organizations with explicit revolutionary socialist and communist ideologies, established propaganda outlets and long-standing ties to international movements aligned with the\u00a0communist governments of Cuba and Venezuela. <\/p>\n

They each have pre-existing activist networks and online audiences that organized and promoted the protests.<\/p>\n

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The event also illustrates how rapidly established activist networks can convert a law-enforcement incident into a larger political action. Within hours, the groups distributed nearly identical claims, promoted the same location and used dramatic language describing the shooting as \u201cICE terror,\u201d \u201cpolice violence\u201d and part of a pattern of killings.<\/p>\n

At about 4:19 p.m. local time, the\u00a0<\/a>Party for Socialism and Liberation\u2019s national account, @PSLNational, posted an explosive message on\u00a0X<\/a>, announcing the shooting and shouting in capital letters, \u201cBREAKING. MAN SHOT BY ICE AGENTS IN AUSTIN. It called on residents to protest ICE, declaring, \u201cICE OUT OF AUSTIN NOW!\u201d<\/p>\n

Right about then, the group\u2019s\u00a0Austin chapter<\/a>\u00a0shared<\/a>\u00a0the dramatic \u201cBREAKING\u201d graphic on Instagram, collaborating with its national headquarters and four Texas chapters in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth and Waco. By early Monday evening, about 24 hours later, the post had 5,402 likes, 2,016 reposts and 2,391 shares\/sends.<\/p>\n

Soon after on Sunday, at about 4:30 p.m. local time, the Austin chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America posted a graphic labeled \u201cEmergency Demonstration\/Vigil\u201d calling on supporters to gather at 8121 Research Boulevard from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday for a \u201cspontaneous\u201d protest.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoin us at 8121 Research Blvd from 5-8 p.m. for a spontaneous protest and vigil against yet another instance of ICE and police violence,\u201d the post said.<\/p>\n

The group later reposted the notice with an updated location and said the demonstration would continue until 7 p.m.<\/p>\n

Right about then, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, an openly Marxist-Leninist group that has sent delegations to support communist regimes in Cuba and Venezuela, and its Austin chapter\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0its own hyperbolic material about the shooting. <\/p>\n

One graphic said, \u201cICE SHOOTS AN UNARMED CIVILIAN,\u201d while another described the incident as part of a broader pattern of \u201cICE violence and killings.\u201d Within 24 hours, the post garnered 620 likes, 214 reposts and 156 shares\/sends.<\/p>\n

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization openly says it is working to build \u201ca new, revolutionary, communist party.\u201d <\/p>\n

In its own program, the group says it wants to replace capitalism through a socialist revolution. The group\u2019s\u00a0program\u00a0describes<\/a> the organization as part of the communist movement. In July, the group\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0it \u201csalutes the Communist Party of China\u201d on the 105th anniversary of its founding.<\/p>\n

For years, it\u2019s also supported the\u00a0Communist Party of Cuba,\u00a0declaring<\/a>, \u201cStand with socialist Cuba,\u201d as it praised the Cuban Revolution and called for an end to US sanctions against Cuba.<\/p>\n

Law enforcement officers retreat as people protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on Sunday in Austin, Texas. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Videos posted by the group showed demonstrators chanting, holding signs, blocking the roadway near the shooting scene and lighting fireworks.<\/p>\n

The Party for Socialism and Liberation official manifesto\u00a0describes<\/a>\u00a0itself as a \u201crevolutionary socialist\u201d movement that \u201cwill open the way to communism and the end of class society.\u201d <\/p>\n

The program describes the police and state institutions as tools of capitalist rule and calls for a workers\u2019 government to replace the current system.<\/p>\n

The Party for Socialism and Liberation functions as a key boots-on-the-ground mobilizer within the broader activist ecosystem, working alongside\u00a0Singham-funded organizations\u00a0such as the People\u2019s Forum, BreakThrough News, CodePink and the ANSWER Coalition on protests, media campaigns and international solidarity efforts.<\/p>\n

People speak during a demonstration on Sunday, in Austin, Texas, where a man was shot in his vehicle by an ICE officer. AP Photo\/Joel Angel Juarez<\/p>\n

The Party for Socialism and Liberation also overlaps with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization through shared \u201canti-imperialist\u201d pro-communist coalitions, while the Democratic Socialists of America often provides a broader layer of street-level organizing and political amplification.<\/p>\n

The Party for Socialism and Liberation has participated in international \u201csolidarity\u201d efforts involving Cuba and Venezuela, along with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, according to\u00a0a communist publication, Fight Back! News<\/a>. <\/p>\n

A self-described communist co-founder of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Brian Becker, has said the delegation traveled \u201cas comrades in solidarity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Demonstrators react to tear gas flung in their direction by police during a protest after a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot and wounded a man, city officials said, in Austin, Texas. REUTERS<\/p>\n

The facts surrounding the shooting remain under investigation. Austin officials have called for transparency and an independent review, while federal authorities have said the ICE agent\u2019s use of force is being investigated. <\/p>\n

But the protest organizers\u2019 social media posts leave little ambiguity about the political and ideological objective of the protest.<\/p>\n

At 5:44 p.m., @PSLNational posted\u00a0a video from the scene<\/a>, announcing, \u201cLIVE: A crowd has gathered\u2026\u201d, and moving from initial messaging to real-time amplification of the street protest. <\/p>\n

Its national and Austin accounts\u00a0shared<\/a>\u00a0the video on Instagram synchronized with the band Rage Against the Machine\u2019s song, \u201cWe\u2019ve Got to Take the Power Back.\u201d <\/p>\n

It added the message, \u201cAustinites flooding the streets where man shot by ICE: \u2018ICE out of our neighborhoods,\u2019\u201d giving the illusion of a spontaneous \u201cflooding\u201d of \u201cthe streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

That evening, at 8:27 p.m., @PSLNational\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0an expanded statement on X, headlined \u201cJustice for Wilber Rafael Garc\u00e9s P\u00e9rez,\u201d demanding the detainee\u2019s release and the agent\u2019s arrest and telling supporters to \u201cfollow the example of Minneapolis earlier this year until ICE terror is defeated!\u201d<\/p>\n

An identical \u201cJustice for Wilber\u2026\u201d collaborative\u00a0post on Instagram<\/a>\u00a0spread through the\u00a0<\/a>Party for Socialism and Liberation\u2019sTexas and national accounts. By early Monday evening, it had 10,600 likes, 3,616 reposts and 2,343 shares\/sends.<\/p>\n

By about 5 p.m. on Monday, a new\u00a0call to action\u00a0<\/a>moved activists to Pearsal Detention Center, where local groups claimed ICE agents allegedly held the detainee in custody: \u201cWE NEED YOU BOOTS ON THE GROUND\u2026!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

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