Prairieland Sentences Spark Fury

Eight people convicted in connection with a July 4, 2025, protest and shooting outside the Prairieland immigration detention center in Texas were sentenced to decades in federal prison, with terms ranging from 30 to 100 years and totaling about 450 years. Benjamin Song, a former U.S. Marine Corps reservist, received the longest sentence after prosecutors said he opened fire during the demonstration and wounded a police officer. Federal prosecutors described the attack on the ICE-linked facility as domestic terrorism and accused the defendants of ties to antifa. The case became a major test of the Justice Department’s terrorism strategy against militant anti-ICE protesters, drawing sharp reactions from both law-and-order conservatives and civil liberties advocates.