How Trump’s DOJ Invented 'Domestic Terrorism' to Target Antifa Protesters in Texas

On July 4, 2020, a group of 11 protesters—including a middle school teacher and a UPS worker—held a “noise demonstration” outside the Prairie­land Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, roughly 30 miles south of Fort Worth. Some protesters spray-painted epithets on vehicles, while others set off fireworks to mark the Fourth of July. The protest remained nonviolent until an Alvarado police officer, Thomas Gross, arrived and drew his firearm.

At that moment, Benjamin Song, a protester hiding in the woods, shot Gross, though the officer survived. The incident escalated into the arrest of 19 people on a mix of federal and state charges. Notably, eight of those arrested were not present at the demonstration.

Federal Trial and Unprecedented Charges

In February 2021, nine individuals went to federal trial in Fort Worth on multiple charges, including:

• Five defendants faced multiple counts of attempted murder of a police officer and unarmed correctional officers.
• Eight were charged with providing material support to terrorists, rioting, and using and carrying explosives.
• Two faced charges of “corruptly concealing” documents and conspiracy to conceal.

By the trial’s conclusion, Song was convicted of attempted murder, while others were found guilty of providing material support to terrorists. Among those arrested was Daniel Sanchez Estrada, a green-card holder who was not at the protest. The government alleged he transported “a box that contained numerous antifa materials.” In reality, Estrada had merely moved a box of anarchist zines—unrelated to antifa—from his parents’ home to another residence in Dallas. He now faces up to 40 years in prison.

The Invention of 'Domestic Terrorism'

This case reads like a relic from the Palmer Raids or J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI, yet it occurred under the Trump administration, which deployed a new and alarming legal strategy: charging protesters with “domestic terrorism.”

Despite the prosecution’s claims, the government produced no evidence linking the protesters to antifa or terrorism. More critically, there is no legal definition of 'domestic terrorism' in U.S. law. The term was fabricated by the Trump administration to criminalize domestic dissent, particularly targeting groups like antifa. The case also revealed a systematic disregard for due process, standard legal procedures, and basic fairness.

“Antifa,” despite what you may have heard about Minneapolis nurses or Iranian mullahs, qualifies as the Trump administration’s Public Enemy Number One, and the administration is preparing to deploy the entire capacity of the U.S. system of justice to destroy not only antifa but also every means of support it can locate anywhere in American society, going so far as to invent an entirely new category of crime to do so.

The implications are chilling: the government has weaponized legal ambiguity to suppress political opposition, setting a dangerous precedent for future prosecutions.