Now they are propping them up as trophies to break public support
In July 2025, a group of people were arrested after holding a noise demonstration outside the Prairieland Detention Center. Original arrests took place following an altercation that occurred 200 yards away from the protest and then were followed by a few dozen more as the Feds and DHS sensed an opportunity to crackdown on anti-ICE protest. In a glaring act of political repression, the Department of Justice, in collaboration with the media, has crafted a narrative that these protesters were an organized group of “ANTIFA” terrorists intent on doing harm during their noise demonstration. This accusation doesn’t hold water, but that hasn’t stopped the prosecution and Federal and State agencies from doing everything they can to villainize and persecute these people who stepped out against the mass deportation machine.
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 widely practiced coercion used by Jails in the US to break people down and get them to sign plea deals for crimes they didn’t commit.
The majority of defendants did not break under these brutal conditions and stayed loyal to their friends and the movement they are a part of. Their resolve has propelled the movement even further into the public eye, brought more attention to the crimes of the mass deportation machine and the willingness of the government to bend over backwards to punish people for their dissent. Our hearts go out to these brave people and all they have endured to stay true to their principles.
The collaborating defendants signed plea agreements under the impression they would receive less prison time. This has yet to be proven, because they haven’t been sentenced yet, and will not be until after trial. 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.
Following their arrests, the defendants were jailed in the Johnson and Tarrant County Jail, both 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 Sherriff of Johnson County Jail, Adam King, was under investigation for witness retaliation and sexual harassment during the time Prairieland defendants stayed there and has since been arrested for these crimes.
Last October, in Tarrant County Jail, a correctional officer murdered Anthony Johnson Jr. by asphyxiation induced by kneeling on his neck and has faced no consequences. Tarrant County Commissioners have spent thousands defending the people involved in the murder. In April 2026, Lizza Galdin died in detainment and the jail has yet to release details. In December 2025, 32-year-old Mason Andrew Yancy died while in custody. Tarrant County Jail lists his manner of death as ‘pending’. In 2020, 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. KERA and CBS Texas have documented these cases of neglect and brutality.
Prairieland 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 collaborating witness, claiming that she would get 99 years to life if she didn’t cooperate instead of the actual 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.
Federal Agencies and Local Police Departments have 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 or any protests against injustices 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 public, 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.
Come out to protest for the Prairieland Defendants this Wednesday, March 11 at 4pm at Burnett Park. Do not let political repression win!
*Let the record show, snitching is never ok. We can have compassion for the people who flipped under duress in order to understand what went wrong and how to prevent this intolerable offense from ever happening again. The perpetual liar who flipped immediately and provided information that led to numerous arrests, however, is an exception to our compassion.
Dare to Struggle 