Federal prosecutors, for the first time, have filed terrorism-related charges targeting Antifa, specifically over the July 4 attack on an ICE detention facility in Texas, according to newly unsealed court records.
Cameron Arnold and Zachary Evetts are each facing a count of providing support to terrorists over their alleged role in the shooting of a police officer at the detention center, ABC News reported.
The violence unfolded on the Fourth of July outside of the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado around 10:37 p.m., officials said at the time. In the lead-up to the gunfire, authorities said a group of people dressed in all black vandalized vehicles with the words “traitor” and “ICE pig” before launching off rounds of fireworks.
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Texas
Body armor and ammunition were found after the shooting at the Prairieland ICE facility. (U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Texas)
The late-night chaos “seemed to be designed to draw U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel outside the facility,” authorities said, “and it worked.” It was enough to draw a pair of unarmed corrections officers from the facility, who came under fire shortly thereafter.
An officer from the Alvarado Police Department was shot through the neck while responding to the violence, according to the complaint. He was treated at an area hospital and later released.
Another assailant allegedly shot approximately 20 to 30 rounds at the unarmed correctional officers who were also present, according to the complaint. Authorities said the gunfire came from the nearby woods.
Per the indictment obtained by ABC News, Arnold and Evetts were part of an “Antifa cell” that planned the attack on the Texas ICE facility.
It went on to describe Antifa as a “militant enterprise made up of networks of individuals and small groups primarily ascribing to a revolutionary anarchist or autonomous Marxist ideology, which explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States government, law enforcement authorities, and the system of law.”
The indictment appears to be the first time that terrorism charges have been applied to alleged followers of the anti-fascist movement, following President Trump last month formally designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.
