FORT WORTH, TEXAS
—
Daniel Sanchez Estrada
wasn’t accused of attempted murder or material support of terrorism after a protest turned catastrophically wrong outside an ICE detention center in Alvarado, Texas. He was merely convicted of obstructing the investigation by
moving a box full of antifascist zines
after the protest. Giving him a long prison term would make a mockery of justice, his defense attorney, Christopher Weinbel, told U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor on Tuesday.
“The punishment must fit the crimes — not the headlines, not the politics, not the fears that have been mongered about the case,” he said.
Instead, O’Connor gave Sanchez Estrada a 30-year term.
The lengthy sentence was among the eight harsh terms handed down by judges in two courtrooms in Fort Worth on Tuesday to activists who played roles at or after the July 4, 2025, protest at Prairieland Detention Center. Their sentences —
longer than any of those received
by members of the January 6, 2021
assault on the U.S. Capitol
— capped a case that is widely regarded as the Trump administration’s
first major victory
in its crackdown on
left-wing activism
.
Anti-ICE Protesters Convicted on Terrorism Charges for Wearing All Black
The defendants were convicted at trial in March. Prosecutors convinced a jury that the fact that the eight defendants present at the protest
wore all black
and used the Signal encrypted messaging app supported their material support of terrorism charges. Sanchez Estrada, who was not at the protest, was convicted of corruptly concealing a document or record and conspiracy to conceal documents.
Only one of the defendants, Benjamin Hanil Song, was accused of firing a gun at a police officer, who left the scene with an injury to his neck; Song was convicted of attempted murder. Still, federal guidelines calling for harsher sentences for all because of links to terrorism — which were applied by O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee, and
… [more]
