By Sarah Roderick-Fitch | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Following the designation of Antifa by President Donald Trump as a domestic terror organization, the FBI announced that terrorism charges have been brought against suspects in the July attack on a Prairieland Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas.
FBI Kash Patel made the announcement Thursday afternoon, noting that it is a first for the U.S. Department of Justice.
“First time ever: the FBI arrested Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremists and terrorism charges have been brought for the July 4 Prairieland ICE attack in Texas,” Patel posted on X. “Under President Trump’s new authorities we’ve made 20+ arrests. No one gets to harm law enforcement. Not on my watch.”
The ICE Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado, Texas, was attacked in an ambush shooting on July 4, resulting in one officer being shot and injured.
Homeland Security noted that “nearly a dozen violent assailants equipped with tactical gear and weapons” attacked the facility, which occurred days before another attack where a Border Patrol official in McAllen, Texas, was also shot and injured.
Eleven suspects were arrested in the ambush.
According to Homeland Security, on the evening of the attack, the detention center housed more than 1,000 “illegal aliens,” including “detainees with convictions of rape, child molestation, murder, kidnapping, arson, human trafficking and terrorism.”
The announcement comes a month after The Center Square asked Trump if he would designate Antifa a domestic terror organization following the rise of political violence. In response, the president officially designated the group a terror organization a week later.
The announcement and designation come as multiple ICE facilities across the country have been targeted by activists, including a shooting at an ICE facility in Dallas that resulted in two detainees being shot and killed in an ambush.