A few of the Prairieland Defendants unfortunately accepted plea deals under duress and agreed to testify against their codefendants in exchange for “lighter sentences”. The media is framing this as a soap opera story of interpersonal betrayal between friends and fellow anti-ICE protesters. The reality, however, is that these defendants experienced brutal coercion at Johnson and then Tarrant County jail leading up to their plea agreements, and their testimonies have not been the admission of guilt that the prosecution hoped for. This situation is a bleak reminder of the practiced coercion done by jails in the US to incarcerate black and brown youth across the US, not a political intrigue or drama.
It should be noted that defendants have signed plea agreements under the impression they would receive less time. This has yet to be proven, because they haven’t been sentenced yet, and will not be until after trial. It is entirely possible that the time they serve is only marginally less than they would have faced if they didn’t collaborate. The judge who will sentence them is the same one who is overseeing the trial, he is holding their futures in his hands, and has proven to be petty and vindictive. He has fined defense attorneys for advocating for their clients, declared a mistrial based on an article of clothing, and when the courtroom became full of spectators, he moved the trial overflow to a different city an hour away from where supporters could observe while still taking part in court support activities.
The government jailed the defendants in the Johnson and Tarrant County jail following their arrests, which is well known and hated by the people because of the unsanitary and awful conditions. Inmates who have written to the outside paint pictures of a living hell within these jails and multiple deaths and documentation of brutality confirm this. The Sherrif of Johnson County Jail, Adam King was under investigation for coercion and sexual harassment during the time prairieland defendants stayed there, and has now been indicted for this crime. Last October, In Tarrant County jail, C.O. Moreno murdered Anthony Johnson Jr.’s through asphyxiation and has faced no consequences. Tarrant County Commissioners have spent thousands defending the people involved in the murder. In April of 2026, Lizza Galdin died in detainment and the jail has yet to release details. In December of 2025, 32-year-old Mason Andrew Yancy died while in custody. Tarrant County Jail lists his manner of death as ‘pending’. Chasity Congious gave birth alone in her cell. Her daughter died 10 days later. Tarrant County maintains that Chasity did not make a sound while giving birth in her cell and that is why they did not provide medical care. In 2025, Kimberly Phillips died of dehydration and malnutrition after just 3 weeks in jail. She told jailers multiple times that she couldn’t eat the food she was being served. By the time she was sent to the hospital, her kidneys were failing. Defendants have reported being held in solitary confinement for months, starved, denied medical care, and for a period of time were stripped searched every day, multiple times a day.
It came out on the witness stand that the police lied to a 24-year-old government witness, claiming that she would get 99 years to life if she didn’t cooperate instead of the actual max 40 year max sentence of her alleged crime. She testified that she was held in unsanitary and unbearable conditions and berated by different agencies for 8-9 months before she agreed to cooperate.
With plea deals, the prosecution writes the testimony for the cooperating witnesses to read out loud. This has backfired as collaborating witnesses have been unable to stick to the script, having at times testified to a very different re-telling of events when under oath, have cried with love for their friends on the stand, and denied the prosecutions argument that they went to prairieland detention center with the intent to do harm.
The government has always used the strategy of coercing, breaking people’s spirits, and lying to defendants to take plea deals, so that they can influence public opinion to fit their narrative and distract from what the case is really about – politically repressing anti-ICE protests that threaten the status quo. The government and media’s narrative must be exposed, and people must understand the coercion that is a foundational principle of this ‘justice system’.
As the government and media work overtime to vilify and convict the prairieland defendants in the eyes of the media, we must work harder to maintain that it is right to rebel against ICE, we’re not buying the conspiratorial fabrications of the prosecution, and this repression will not silence our dissent against the mass deportation machine. All out to protest for the Prairieland Defendants on Wednesday, at 4pm, at Burk Burnette Park. Do not let political repression win!
Dare to Struggle 