On the 4th of July last year, supporters of people held in the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, held a noise and fireworks protest outside the facility to show their support for the detainees inside. At the end of the rally, a local police officer arrived, was shot and injured, and 10 people were arrested.
While there are 22 individuals facing charges across various jurisdictions, related to the ICE detention center protest, the primary federal case involves a group of 9 defendants, accused of being part of an antifa terror cell, who were convicted in March of domestic terrorism, rioting, and explosive offenses. Eight of those convicted were sentenced on June 23 to between 30 and 100 years in prison. The one defendant sentenced to 100 years in prison was convicted of attempted murder of a policeman, stating he shot and injured an officer on the scene, after he thought the officer was about to shoot one of the other protesters. The defendants, who’ve been in jail over the past year held on $1 million bail they can’t pay, say they’ll be appealing their case.
Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Xavier de Janon, an attorney for one of the defendants on her state charges who has also been supporting attorneys in the federal cases. Here he talks about the 30- to 100-year sentences handed down in this blatantly political prosecution.
XAVIER DE JANON: People know that these are political prosecutions. From the get-go, people on the ground have seen how politicized this has been and how stacked the odds had been. I don’t think there was a surprise that basically all the sentences were maxed out. It was as high as possible, but there was still some shock and some horror at it. What I think is surprising is that the judges were clear that this was because of ideology, that the punishment is because they want to prevent more people from joining these ideological beliefs, whatever they claim they are. But that had nothing to do with the convictions. To prove the case, the government didn’t have to prove certain beliefs. It was just that an attempted murder happened, a riot happened, explosives were used. It didn’t matter why or what the ideology was. It was, I think, surprising to hear the judges be so blunt, so straightforward that these are ideologically motivated sentences.
I think that was surprising. But the sentences themselves, there was an understanding that they would be super high for the people on the ground. Now, as a lawyer, these sentences are obscene. They are extreme. I have seen cases where a murder conviction has happened and a person has died and the sentence is 20 years, 25 years. Everyone who got convicted on the riot, explosives, conspiracy and material support got 50 years. All the defendants got the same sentence, even if some people were older, had kids, had priors, didn’t have priors. It was a blanket punishment without considering the specific defendant. (Benjamin Hanil) Song got 100 because he was also convicted of the attempted murder. (Maricela Rueda) got 70 because she had an additional concealment of evidence conviction. And then (Daniel) “Des” Sanchez (Estrada) got 30 because he only had that concealment of evidence conviction.
MELINDA TUHUS: I assume there’s going to be an appeal of these sentences. Is that the next step?
XAVIER DE JANON: Yes. So a lot of the defendants started filing their notice of appeal. However, the state cases might also start moving. So those cases might move faster than the appeal. Who knows?
MELINDA TUHUS: Are the same attorneys staying on the case to do the appeal or what do you know about that?
XAVIER DE JANON: It varies. Some defendants have the same attorneys, others have obtained other counsel. Yeah, it varies.
MELINDA TUHUS: Was this sort of cheered in the mass media in Texas and among regular people? Did they think this was an appropriate sentence? Are there any reporting or op-eds or anything about that to get a read on the temperature of Texans’ feelings about this?
XAVIER DE JANON: I mean, I think it’s hard to say because it’s so polarized. Conservative outlets will say, “Yes, antifa got 450 years for attempting to murder a cop. Yeah, it’s justice.” More liberal outlets are expressing shock and outrage at the sentence. Not necessarily that people got convicted, but rather that the sentence is so high. And then I have seen more progressive and more critical outlets talking about the convictions themselves being a problem, that these were protesters, that this was a noise demonstration, so there shouldn’t be a sentence to begin with. But it really varies based on ideology. I mean, and that’s the whole reality of these cases because they’re so political, how people talk about them is just based on their own politics.
For more information, visit Support the Prairieland Defendants at prairielanddefendants.com.
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