Eight months after a Fourth of July attack on a North Texas immigration detention facility left a police officer wounded and the country debating the boundaries of political protest, a federal jury finally began deciding the fate of nine people accused of orchestrating it all.
Deliberations got underway on March 12, 2026, in the trial of defendants charged in connection with the July 4, 2025, assault on the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas — a case that federal prosecutors have called the first domestic terrorism indictment tied to an Antifa-affiliated cell in U.S. history. The stakes, legally and politically, couldn’t be higher.
Nine Defendants, 65 Charges
The accused are Daniel Estrada, Ines Soto, Elizabeth Soto, Maricela Rueda, Bradford Morris, Savanna Batten, Benjamin Song, Zachary Evetts, and Cameron Arnold. Together, they face a staggering 65 charges — among them attempted murder and providing material support to terrorists. Fox4 noted that the trial has drawn intense scrutiny from both law enforcement and civil liberties advocates since charges were first filed.
Prosecutors allege the group didn’t stumble into violence — they planned it. Before the attack, the defendants allegedly joined a Signal group chat ominously titled “4th of July Party!” where they coordinated bringing fireworks, firearms, and medical kits. They also allegedly conducted reconnaissance of the facility in the days leading up to the assault. Two women connected to the plot have already pleaded guilty to aiding the gunman.
“Using Legal Things to Do Something Illegal”
During closing arguments, prosecutor Shawn Smith distilled the government’s theory into a single, memorable line. “This case,” he told the jury, “is about using legal things to do something illegal.” It’s a framing that cuts through the noise — fireworks are legal, firearms can be legal, planning a gathering is legal. What happened in Alvarado on Independence Day, Smith argued, was none of those things. CBS News covered the closing argument in detail.
The night of the attack, authorities say, unfolded with fireworks used as cover, property damage inflicted on the facility, and gunfire that struck Alvarado Police Lt. Thomas Gross. He survived, but the incident rattled law enforcement across the region and prompted a sweeping federal investigation almost immediately.
The Alleged Ringleader
Who pulled the trigger? Federal prosecutors say that was Benjamin Song, whom they’ve identified as the alleged ringleader of the North Texas Antifa cell behind the operation. Song is accused of firing his rifle during the assault, directly wounding Lt. Gross. A YouTube broadcast covering the trial highlighted Song’s central role in the government’s case, with prosecutors painting him as the driving force behind both the planning and execution of the attack.
That said, defense attorneys have pushed back on the government’s characterization throughout the trial, questioning the intent and degree of coordination involved. The jury’s job now is to sort through those competing narratives — no small task given the sheer volume of charges spread across nine individuals.
A Landmark — and Loaded — Prosecution
Here’s what makes this trial genuinely unprecedented: it’s the first federal domestic terrorism case to explicitly name an Antifa-affiliated group as the organizing force behind a violent act. That designation carries enormous legal and symbolic weight. Critics of the prosecution have argued the “terrorism” label is being applied selectively and politically. Supporters of the charges say the facts speak for themselves — a coordinated armed attack on a federal facility is, by most reasonable definitions, terrorism regardless of ideological packaging.
Still, the courtroom proceedings have moved with the grinding pace that complex federal cases tend to demand. As one recap of the trial’s timeline put it, it took a full eight months from the night of the attack to reach the point where jurors could even begin weighing the evidence.
The jury is now doing exactly that — deliberating over 65 counts, nine defendants, and a question that extends well beyond Alvarado: where does political protest end, and domestic terrorism begin?
Whatever verdict emerges from that jury room, it’s likely to reverberate far outside the walls of the courthouse — and far beyond the Fourth of July that started it all.
