The Prairieland 19 Case Is a Test for Criminalizing Dissent
Nine members of the “Prairieland 19,” anti-ICE protesters in Texas who the Trump administration is dubiously accusing of domestic terrorism, are going on trial this week. The case is a test for how easily Trump might criminalize dissent going forward.
The outcome of the Prairieland case may determine how easily the administration can quash opposition and criminalize dissent. (Lauren Puente / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)
Some in the Trump administration may now regret calling Renée Good and Alex Pretti “domestic terrorists.” The hasty application of this label by Kristi Noem, J. D. Vance, and other hard-liners generated justifiable outrage and helped mobilize opposition to Donald Trump’s terror campaign against immigrants. Meanwhile, however, a far less-publicized case threatens to provide an enduring legal framework by which virtually anybody involved in activism against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), or Trump’s agenda more broadly, can be labeled a “domestic terrorist” and treated accordingly.
Next week, a Fort Worth jury will consider the case of an accused “North Texas Antifa Cell” indicted on a variety of charges related to domestic terrorism for anti-ICE activism. (The trial was supposed to begin this week, but the judge declared a mistrial during jury selection yesterday over a defense lawyer wearing a shirt featuring the faces of Martin Luther King Jr and other civil rights movement figures.) The outcome of this case may determine how easily the administration can quash opposition and criminalize dissent through specious accusations of terrorism.
The Demonstration
On July 4, 2025, a small group of activists gathered outside Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, for a noise demonstration. “Noise demonstrations are a common form of protest that occur at jails, prisons, and other facilities that incarcerate people,” explains journalist Sabr Qalam. “The goal of these actions is to make enough noise so that people on the inside are able to hear the support from their community on the outside.”
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