Why we must support the Prairieland defendants

The trial for the Prairieland defendants began Feb. 17, with the nine defendants facing multiple charges, from rioting to attempted murder, for their role in organizing a noise demonstration in solidarity with immigrants held in the Prairieland Immigration Customs and Enforcement detention center in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4, 2025.

The nine are accused of being part of a “North Texas Antifa cell” and being responsible for the nonfatal shooting of a police officer outside the facility.

The ruling class has been hellbent on making sure that any type of demonstration opposing the kidnapping and sending of immigrant comrades to the Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) concentration camps across this country must be shut down. And the monopoly on violence that the capitalist class holds is being unleashed upon the people to make that happen.

The capitalist state has made it their mission to make an example of these nine activists, as shown clearly by the actions of the prosecution that has leaned heavily on the false narrative of the defendants being terrorists and members of the anti-fascist and anti-racist network the state labels as “Antifa.”

The prosecution even tried to link the Emma Goldman Book Club, a study group that several of the defendants allegedly attended, as a front for recruiting people into “Antifa.” That claim was directly refuted by defendant Lynette Sharp, who testified on the stand that she is not a member of “Antifa,” contrary to what the prosecution has argued, and that the book club was not an “Antifa” recruitment operation.

Sharp was one of multiple defendants who took cooperating plea deals, but whose testimony for the state actually vindicated the defendants and affirmed key defense arguments that the demonstration was to show solidarity with people detained at the facility and not to enact violence. The state’s witnesses reiterated that the defendants were not part of a unified group, let alone a terrorist organization.

Sharp also added that she did not write the statement of facts used in her guilty plea. When asked by defense attorney Phillip Hayes why she signed it, she explained: “First they gave me accessory after the fact. It was a very scary, confusing process. I was held in a facility with no medical care, and I felt I would die there.” (prairielanddefendants.com)

And Sharp was not the only defendant who has faced conditions like this. Defendants have been subjected to the same brutal conditions, including isolation, forced and unnecessary strip searches, denial of access to lawyers and having their legal notes taken by guards. One defendant was even forced into a cell with walls smeared with feces.

Declaration of state repression

The Prairieland case should concern all of us, because this case is a targeted attack on the working class and a declaration of further repression against the people. It is the capitalists’ way of saying, “We will jail more of you, and will oppress more of you, and we will murder you.”

This was on full display, with the individuals called to the stand by the prosecution echoing this same sentiment. Texas Ranger Billy Hill, while on the stand, stated, “It may be acceptable for a police officer to shoot an unarmed person in the back while they run.” This sentiment was echoed by two more officers, including Thomas Gross, the officer who was wounded.

Gross testified that when he arrived at the protest he immediately drew his weapon and pointed it at several fleeing demonstrators, who were “without any obvious threat,” as stated by prairielanddefendants.com.

Officer Darius Bell, who had stopped defendants Ines Soto, Elizabeth Soto, Maricela Rueda and Seth Sikes, admitted that he drew his weapon and yelled at these defendants, who were already seated on the ground, after they claimed their Constitutional right to refuse to allow him to search their belongings.

False narratives of terrorist activity

The ruling class is desperately trying to use this trial to feed a false narrative of terrorist activities, turning it into propaganda to mislead the working class into believing the lies they’re told and to back the railroading of these comrades. But, as we know, the people have already begun to tear apart the lies and see for themselves what’s going on.

The proletariat has begun to wake up more and more and realize that the oldest trick of the capitalists is to propagandize and lie to repress the people. The same thing was done in 1920 to immigrant workers Nicola Sacco and Bartolomelo Vanzetti, falsely convicted of robbery and murder. The same happened in 1931 with the Scottsboro defendants — nine Black teenagers falsely accused of raping two white women.

From 1949 to 1958, leaders of the Communist Party of the United States were accused of violating the Smith Act. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed, having been falsely convicted in 1951 of conspiring to pass atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.

In 1969, antiwar activists known as the Chicago 8 were charged with conspiring to riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. In September 1970, 13 members of the Black Panther Party in New York were falsely accused of shooting at police and trying to blow up police stations.

All these trials were examples of the capitalist class railroading members of the working class and propagandizing the people to go against their own class members so that the ruling class could continue to exploit the people.

Today the target is the Prairieland Defendants. We must support these comrades during this trial, because, ultimately, if we don’t, the reactionary ruling class will do the same to us, and this exploitative cycle and repression will not end.