The first-place trophy in the FAFO Competition was officially retired today as nine Antifa terrorists were awarded a total of 450 years in federal prison for their attack on July 4, 2025, on the Prarieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas; see TX Police Officer Shot in Neck at ICE Detention Center, Multiple Suspects Arrested Wearing Body Armor – RedState. Defendant Maricela Rueda received 70 years. Defendants Autumn (Cameron Arnold, no word on his preferred pronouns) Hill, Zachary Evetts, Savanna Batten, Meagan Morris (or Bradford Morris), and Elizabeth Soto scored 50 years each. A Mexican national named Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada was in ninth place with 30 years. The big winner was the ringleader, a former Marine Corps Reservist named Benjamin Hanil Song. He was adjudged responsible for the shooting of Alvarado Police Department Lieutenant Thomas Gross and received 100 years, yes, you read that correctly, 100 years in prison. With good behavior, he could be out in 2111.
These are the 10 alleged members of a north Texas Antifa terror cell accused of carrying out the attempted murder of federal officers at a shooting terrorist attack on an ICE facility on the Fourth of July in Alvarado, Texas.
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) July 8, 2025
One local police officer was shot in the neck, and… pic.twitter.com/fRtYldx661
The sentencing was based on the group's conviction in March on 65 felony counts that included attempted murder, aiding terrorists, and weapons charges; see More Than Just an Idea: Jury Convicts Nine in Antifa ICE Terrorism Trial – RedState.
Already, the leftist media are trying to paint these depraved cretins as the victims of a vindictive Trump Justice Department. However, they don't have an answer for the massive upward departure from sentencing guidelines. Like how did Song, who could've skated with a mere 20 years in prison, convince a federal judge that he needed 100?
The most hilarious example of this spread of Luigi Magnione-esqe defiication of deranged psychopaths comes, unsurprisingly, from The New Republic, only because the latest issue of The Atlantic hasn't hit the internet. It's called They Say They’re Protesters. The DOJ Says They’re Terrorists. Well, it's not just the DOJ saying that; a federal jury and judge agree.
Before arriving that night, a few protesters had allegedly staked out the facility; indeed, prosecutors have pointed to defendants’ “coordinated” actions, including their use of encrypted messaging apps and nicknames—such as “Champagne,” “Jon ValJon,” and “Not Beating the Little Creature Allegations”—as indicators of a malevolent plot. But using nicknames in a group chat and planning a protest in advance are hardly evidence of violent intent. When Lydia Koza—whose wife, Autumn Hill (NOTE: ahem, you mean Cameron Arnold, right), is among the 11 protesters—heard Hill’s “Little Creature” moniker in court, she said, “I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry.”
Even in defending them, the reporter admits they went in intending to shoot at police officers.
Group chat logs in the lead-up to the protest show some back-and-forth about whether it was necessary to bring guns. Benjamin Song, a former Marine reservist and the alleged shooter, argued in favor. They would act as a deterrent in case the confrontation turned hostile. “Cops are not trained or equipped for more than one rifle,” he allegedly wrote, “so it tends to make them back off.” The group arrived at the facility with 11 firearms but left many in their cars, backpacks, or a wagon near the entrance shortly after arriving.
In fact, the article doesn't describe a protest but a half-witted paramilitary operation; see After FBI Reveals Evidence of ICE Killer's Motive, Left-Wingers Descend Into Gross Cope – RedState.
At approximately 10:37 p.m., a group of 11 people, faces covered, approached the Prairieland Detention Center from an overgrown tree line to the building’s west. One broke the camera on the guard shack at the property’s entrance and spray-painted “Fuck You Pigs” on it, then headed to the parking lot, where they tagged “ICE Pig” on a white Toyota Prius. At least five followed the razor wire fence north, fanning out and splitting into smaller teams of two to three. One group remained close to the facility entrance, keeping watch.
The reporter, someone named Samuel Russek, whom I was blissfully unaware of before today, defends it this way: "Participants and supporters say that the event was intended as a noise demonstration, and that they lit fireworks to show solidarity with the facility’s 1,000-plus detainees." Yep. And they lit up a police officer, too, though they aren't interested in talking about it. He mitigates the attempted murder of the police officer this way. "Federal prosecutors initially claimed that multiple assailants armed with AR-15–style rifles shot 20 to 30 rounds at Gross and the officers. By early August, state filings indicate that only 11 shell casings were found at the scene, suggesting just one shooter, and 'leading investigators to believe the initial 20–30 shell casings to be an inaccurate amount of spent rounds.'" That nuance was apparently lost on the jurors and the judge.
This case is one of the most significant domestic terrorist cases brought in decades. Unlike the bull**** "kidnapping" plot of Gretchen Whitmer and the equally nonsensical "seditious conspiracy" of the "Hutaree Militia" (The FBI's Latest Homegrown Terrorist Plot Is an Obvious Joke but What Is Going to Happen to the People Involved Is Not – RedState) where there were more FBI agents and confidential informants involved than conspirators (It Sure Looks Like the FBI Basically Orchestrated the Gretchen Whitmer 'Kidnapping' Plot – RedState), this involved a real conspiracy and a real shooting.
It marks the first time that a federal grand jury has indicted Antifa members for terrorist acts despite their long history of terrorism; see Antifa Hardest Hit As Kash Patel Shares Big News About Suspects in Prairieland Detention Center Attack – RedState. It also marks the first time Antifa was brought to account for its terrorism and murders. In the past, probably because they are leftist and many of our political class lullaby themselves to sleep at night with 1960s protest tunes, Antifa was treated as a cute little street theater group, no matter the damage and injuries inflicted.
Sending these clowns off to prison for a few decades will go a long way toward dampening the enthusiasm of would-be Che Guevaras for direct action against our government and society.
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