(Headline USA) A federal jury on Friday convicted eight people on terrorism charges over a shooting at a Texas immigration facility that federal prosecutors tied to the violent leftist movement, antifa.
Jurors also handed down guilty verdicts on other charges, including attempted murder against one member of the group who prosecutors say opened fire last summer outside the Prairieland Detention Center near Dallas, wounding a police officer who was shot in the neck.
Sentencing was set for June.
The trial was closely watched beyond the Fort Worth courtroom as some legal experts and critics called it a test of the lengths the government can go to punish protesters.
Lawyers for the accused say they were not antifa members and had instead organized a “noise demonstration” that included fireworks to show support for immigrants who had been detained as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation operations.
FBI Director Kash Patel has called the Texas case the first time a material support to terrorism charge has targeted people accused of being antifa members.
Exploding fireworks (explosives) thrown at the Prairieland facility by Antifa Cell members, captured by surveillance cameras. pic.twitter.com/eU4Satxn37
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) March 13, 2026
Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a news release Friday: “Today’s verdict on terrorism charges will not be the last as the Trump administration systematically dismantles Antifa and finally halts their violence on America’s streets.”
Defense attorneys told jurors that there was no plan for violence on July 4 outside the facility in Alvarado.
There were nine defendants on trial in all, eight of whom faced a charge of providing material support to terrorists. The ninth defendant was charged with corruptly concealing a document and conspiracy to conceal documents. He was found guilty of both. Lawyers for the defendants said their clients were not members of antifa.
Prosecutor Shawn Smith told jurors during closing arguments that the group’s actions — including bringing firearms, first aid kids and wearing body armor — were all signals of the group’s intent. He said they practiced “antifa tactics,” and were “obsessed with operational security.”
“This was not a peaceful protest, this was a direct action,” Smith said.
Attorneys for the defendants have said there was no planned ambush and that protesters who brought firearms only did so for their own protection.
The case, defense attorney Blake Burns told jurors, is about the government trying to characterize protesters as terrorists in order to put them in prison.
After the verdict, MarQuetta Clayton, the attorney for defendant Maricela Rueda, told television station WFAA that she was feeling “very emotional for her.” She said she was thinking of Rueda’s 12-year-old daughter and what the future will look like for them.
The terrorism charges did not require a tie to any organization, and there is no domestic equivalent to the State Department’s list of foreign terror organizations. That’s in part because organizations operating within the United States are protected by broad First Amendment rights.
Attorneys for the defendants have said that most protesters began leaving when two guards from the center came outside. That was before any shots were fired.
Prosecutors said Song, a former U.S. Marine Corps reservist, yelled “get to the rifles” and opened fire, striking one police officer who had just pulled up to the center.
Though it was defendant Benjamin Song who opened fire, the prosecution charged several other protesters with attempted murder of a law officer and discharging a firearm but were found not guilty, arguing that from the group’s planning, it was foreseeable that a shooting could happen.
The officer who was shot, Alvarado Police Lt. Thomas Gross, testified that when responding to the scene he saw a person clad in all-black with their face covered and carrying a rifle. He told jurors he was shot with a round that went into his shoulder and out of his neck.
Song’s attorney, Phillip Hayes, told jurors during closing arguments that there wasn’t a call to arms within the group before Gross arrived on the scene and “aggressively” pulled out his firearm. Hayes suggested that Song’s shots were “suppressive fire,” and that the ricochet bullet is what hit the officer.
Leading up to the trial, several people pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists after being accused of supporting antifa.
They face up to 15 years in prison at sentencing.dddd
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.
