The case, framed by federal officials as a first-of-its-kind prosecution, has drawn vows of appeal from defendants.
By Chase Rogers,
Staff Writer
FORT WORTH — Federal judges handed down decadeslong prison terms Tuesday for eight defendants convicted in what prosecutors cast as an “antifa” terrorist attack last summer on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Alvarado.
Benjamin Song, a former U.S. Marine Corps reservist described by prosecutors as the group’s ringleader, received the longest sentence: 100 years in federal prison.
The other seven codefendants received sentences ranging from 30 to 70 years. Eight more are set for sentencing next month.
Song was convicted in March of attempted murder after authorities said he opened fire outside the Prairieland Detention Center, wounding an Alvarado police officer. The mixed verdict also convicted eight others on charges including rioting and using explosives — in this case, fireworks.
The prosecution, described by federal officials as the first of its kind against an “antifa cell,” has become a test case in the Trump administration’s effort to treat far-left political violence as domestic terrorism.
Last week, federal prosecutors charged 15 people in Minnesota with trying to obstruct the administration’s immigration crackdown there, alleging they were antifa members who conspired to block federal arrests and deportations.
Defense attorneys in the Texas case said their clients had planned to stage a peaceful protest outside the detention center. Some of the defendants, including Song, denied being part of antifa.
Family members and supporters gathered outside the Eldon B. Mahon U.S. Courthouse in downtown Fort Worth denounced the sentences, vowed to appeal and called the punishments the product of a politically motivated Justice Department.
Song’s mother, Hope Song, disputed prosecutors’ telling, claiming the Alvarado officer’s body-worn camera video showed he was struck by shrapnel sent flying by his own gunfire.
“He’s accepted full responsibility for what actually happened, but he will never accept responsibility for a lie,” she said of her son, “a government lie made to prosecute innocent people … which they are now using as a blueprint to prosecute innocent people all over the country as domestic terrorists.”
Defense attorneys sought to frame the case as one rooted in First Amendment activity, not terrorism. Some argued what happened outside the detention facility on July 4, 2025, was a demonstration aimed at delivering a “message of hope” to detainees in the center that spiraled out of control.
But Chief U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, one of two judges who handled sentencing hearings Tuesday, said the attack went beyond protest.
“The defendants’ violence and terrorism is an assault on democracy,” O’Connor said. “The defendants’ planning, staging and execution of the attack led to the attempted murder of an officer who ironically is not even involved in enforcing immigration law.”
Defense teams plan appeals
The eight defendants were split between two sentencing hearings Tuesday, appearing before U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, who oversaw the 12-day trial earlier this year, and O’Connor.
Song, Maricela Rueda, Zachary Evetts, Savanna Batten, Elizabeth Soto, Ines Soto, Autumn Hill and Meagan Morris were convicted of riot, providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to use and carry an explosive, and using and carrying an explosive. Hill and Morris are identified in court records as Cameron Arnold and Bradford Morris, respectively.
Rueda received a 70-year sentence. Hill, Evetts, Batten, Morris and Elizabeth Soto each got 50 years.
Miles Brissette, a Fort Worth attorney representing Morris, said that while they respected the jury’s conviction, they “understand” the federal sentencing guidelines left Pittman with “limited room to move.”
“Meagan went to Alvarado that night believing she was there for a peaceful demonstration,” Brissette said in a statement. “The government’s own witnesses confirmed she felt deceived by what unfolded. She was cooperative from the moment of her arrest.”
Brissette said he would quickly appeal the sentence to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He added the defense was grateful the Alvarado police officer who was shot had fully recovered.
Sufia Khalid, deputy director of the Muslim Legal Fund of America’s National Security Criminal Defense Center, said Rueda attended the July 4 demonstration in support of detained immigrants, had no weapon and was acquitted of violence-related charges. The group, which took on her case after trial for sentencing and appeal, called the 70-year sentence an excessive and dangerous expansion of federal terrorism laws against a protester.
“That is not justice,” Khalid said in a statement. “It is the unequal application of the law — reserving the harshest punishments in the federal system for a nonviolent protester while treating far more dangerous conduct with far more leniency, based on political beliefs.”
Daniel Sanchez-Estrada was convicted of document-concealment charges and sentenced Tuesday to 30 years in prison. His attorney, Assistant Federal Public Defender Christopher Weinbel, declined to comment.
A sentencing hearing for the ninth and final trial defendant, Ines Soto, is scheduled for July 1 in O’Connor’s court. He was convicted of riot, providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to use and carry an explosive, and using and carrying an explosive.
Seven others pleaded guilty before trial to one count of providing material support to terrorists: Seth Sikes, Nathan Baumann, Joy Gibson, Susan Kent, Rebecca Morgan, Lynette Sharp and John Thomas.
They also are scheduled to be sentenced July 1.
Federal officials say case is a warning
President Donald Trump signed an executive order last fall declaring antifa a domestic terrorist organization, despite the lack of a federal domestic terrorism designation process equivalent to the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.
A Justice Department news release Tuesday, quoting Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and other federal officials, cast the sentences as a warning to antifa and anyone who attacks law enforcement or federal facilities.
Antifa is a decentralized anti-fascist organization with no organized hierarchy or leadership. It is an umbrella term for far-left militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.
Some of the Alvarado defendants denied any affiliation with antifa and said they attended the demonstration in support of detained immigrants.
Song’s legal team included his father, Dallas attorney Tailim Song.
After the 100-year sentence was handed down, Tailim Song left the courtroom. He spoke briefly in the hallway with his son’s high school wrestling coach, who had been called as a character witness.
“Terrible,” the father told the coach.
Chase Rogers covers the Dallas Police Department, Dallas Fire-Rescue, and broader public safety issues in Dallas. He grew up in Granbury and studied journalism at Texas State University in San Marcos. Before joining The News, he reported for the Austin American-Statesman and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. His work has earned investigative reporting and Freedom of Information awards, including Texas Managing Editor’s Star Reporter of the Year in 2022. He can be reached at 361-239-6527 and on Signal at crogers.95.
