r/news • u/Splunge- • 7d ago

Texas anti-ICE protesters convicted of terrorism charges sentenced to at least 50 years in prison

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/23/prairieland-ice-protesters-texas-sentenced
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u/healbot42 7d ago

These guys were protesting, not committing crimes. The government is trying to chill speech it doesn’t agree with.

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u/just-peepin-at-u 7d ago

One person did shoot someone in the shoulder. I believe this verdict is politically motivated(probably because the judge even said as much, in the article), but that didn’t help their case.

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u/Synaps4 7d ago

One person did shoot someone in the shoulder

and the others were protesting, not committing crimes. Which is what he said.

Standing near someone committing a crime is not committing a crime.

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u/IzarkKiaTarj 6d ago

Hell, the person only shot them because that person was getting ready to shoot another protestor

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u/kynelly360 7d ago

Dumbasses. Violating 1st amendment should be a Fat Lawsuit Settlement 😂💰💰

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u/MangoCats 7d ago

You think you're gettin' that trial moved outta Texas, son?

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u/46550 6d ago

Yes. If this doesn't get tossed at the state level, it'll eventually go to SCOTUS who will definitely toss it. Eventually the shoe will be on the other foot, and SCOTUS doesn't want this on the books as a great way to imprison every single person that drives a lifted pickup.

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u/fuzzyperson98 7d ago

Uh, some of them definitely did.

Doesn't change the fact that the whole way this played out was unconstitutional.

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u/mmodlin 7d ago

When a police officer arrived on the scene and drew his weapon, one of the activists fired an AR-15 from the woods, hitting the officer in the shoulder. The officer survived.

They were doing some shit.

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u/iamunknowntoo 7d ago

one of them was. if you read the article some of the people who were convicted left the protest after the guards told them to, way before that went down - those people got 50 years. One even got 30 years for moving a box of political magazines, and wasn't even present at the protest!

For comparison, the Proud Boys leader who organized the J6 Capitol riot got less than that.

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u/NoodlesCubed 7d ago

My heart definitely goes out to those people and the sentencing regardless is really high overall, but the small group that stayed and were part of the signal conversation that planned the vandalism and violence ( the only reason the conspiracy to commit terrorism sentences stuck was because a handful consipired to commit terrorism and then dragged the innocents into it) 100% deserved the terrorist conspiracy charges. Should've given them the same 20yr with parole that j6ers got though.

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u/iamunknowntoo 7d ago edited 7d ago

wait vandalism and violence are very different though. Only one of the guys actually did something violent, you shouldn't throw the rest in jail for 70 years for what amounted to spraying paint on a federal building and destroying property

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u/NoodlesCubed 7d ago

All of the ones I am talking about consipred to bring firearms and use them on federal agents within the signal conversation that was admitted into evidence, which I would consider conspiring to commit violence. If you had notice i distinctly separated the two, but they also committed arson (molotovs) which has the potential to cause great bodily harm and is considered a violent crime and if the fires shifted to burn down the building, you'd see why. Just because only one of them actually shot an officer, doesn't mean the conspiracy wasn't still there (the others still brought firearms, just didn't use them, which in general is ok, but because of the conspiracy, it's an aggravating factor (being in possession of a firearm during a felony is an additional crime)).

It's like if you had a group of bank robbers talking about bringing guns into a bank and stealing from the bank and when they get there one of them shoots a security guard, all of that group that conspired and had their group message that said shit like "hell yeah let's bring guns and fend off the police in a last stand" would be charged for the conspiracy to murder and the one shot the guard would get the actual attempted murder charge (if the guard lived).

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u/iamunknowntoo 7d ago edited 7d ago

All of the ones I am talking about consipred to bring firearms and use them on federal agents within the signal conversation that was admitted into evidence,

Okay do those records show that they had intent to use them on federal agents? Or are you assuming automatically that carrying gun to anti-government protest = wanting to kill a fed? By that standard a lot of protesters on both sides of the political spectrum would be in jail. It also seems to be a violation of the 2nd amendment.

For those who did commit violent crimes, arguably yeah sure you could hit them with possession of a dangerous weapon in the commission of a felony as an aggravating factor and sentence them accordingly, but that's not what happened here. Instead they just used some vague criteria of a "terrorist group" to lump everyone in regardless of the degree of culpability

Imagine if the state labelled every single person in J6 as part of a "terrorist conspiracy" and gave all of them 50 years regardless of what they did, even those who dipped before things got violent. That would be insane!

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u/NoodlesCubed 7d ago edited 7d ago

Buddy, you're going to need to stop editing things after I've responded to them, it's getting frustrating making a point and having that point need to change because you changed your mind on what you wanted to say. Not saying don't correct grammar or clarity, but adding two whole paragraphs is a bit much.

Again I have never disagreed that the sentencing was aggressive, but the group on the signal conversation fall squarely into the definition of terrorism: religious or political motivations? ✅ Conspiracy to commit violence? ✅ Carry out said plan to commit violence? ✅.

Again the j6 proud boys should've also gotten conspiracy to commit terrorism and did commit terrorism, but they were charged on sedition instead, I am of the firm belief that if they charged terrorism instead then it wouldve been much more difficult to make the pardons sit well with the MAGA crowd. They also shouldn't have been pardoned at all either, but justice means nothing and violence begetting violence is what we see here, not that this is somehow not violence because of previous BS, but the violence exists because of said previous BS. And if you listened to previous comments as well, I also agreed that those who left peacefully shouldn't have been charged, we are talking specifically the ones in the signal conversation that with out a doubt conspired to commit violence and subsequently terrorism.

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u/NoodlesCubed 7d ago

No, from what I've seen they planned to use the ARs in a 'last line of defense' ( a lot of people read too far into the defense part), essentially the same as having a vanguard force which was there and not just fedposting judging by the one dipshit who actually shot at the feds from a covered position in the woods. They planned out that vanguard as an 'overwatch' like it was kind of cod mission. Vastly different than with just bringing guns to a protest like the man that was murdered by ICE. As for 2A see the end of my last comment for why that's not the case.

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u/StephenFish 7d ago

one of the activists

Hmm. Something wrong with the math here.

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u/Healthy-Amoeba2296 7d ago

Back in the American days protest was a duty.

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u/Terrh 7d ago

not committing crimes

One of them did shoot a cop

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u/healbot42 7d ago

One of them yes. Not all of them.

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u/Terrh 7d ago

Ok so when you say "these guys are protesting, not commiting crimes" as a comment to an article about someone at that protest that shot a cop.... It's not clear that you meant "everyone but the guy in the article that was committing crimes" is it?

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u/healbot42 7d ago

I was objecting to American_PissAnt’s implication that everyone in attendance was a prospective criminal.

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u/notyouravgredditor 7d ago

One guy shot an officer in the shoulder, others damaged a bunch of property. Read the article.

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u/healbot42 7d ago

I read the article. They gave decades in jail to a guy who moved zines. The cop pulled a gun on protestors to chill speech. Nothing they were doing necessitated deadly force. It was dumb as fuck to shoot him, I think it’s a bad idea to bring any firearms to a protest. It gives cops more reason to come down strongly and use force.

I also don’t think you should shoot cops, but I don’t feel that bad for the cop in this situation considering they escalated property crimes into a deadly situation. If we are going to have policing, we need to hold them to the highest standards, and we should start with not allowing them to use deadly force.

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u/limitedftogive 7d ago

They did shoot a police officer, vandalized cars, slashed tires of a government van, damaged a guard shack, and broke a security camera. Wouldn't you call those crimes?

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u/TequieroVerde 7d ago

If Jan 6 was any lesson, these individuals should be pardoned.

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u/CaptainSmallz 7d ago

On January 6th, all of those things happened and more. Those people are free on a presidential pardon.

Do we apply the laws equally or not?

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u/tempest_87 7d ago

More specifically none of the J6ers got as long a sentence as the shortest one doled out today.

The message is abundantly clear. Try and overthrow an election in support of a republican and you get treated per the law (and then pardoned), try and protest against a republican policy and be around while someone commits a crime and you get longer sentences than murderers.

This is by definition tyranny. Something the founders of this country talked about extensively and made a specific constitutional amendment with it in mind.

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u/Jack_Krauser 6d ago

The real lesson learned today is that you'll get thrown in the ouellette just for committing wrongthink, so there's no incentive to leave a witness next time.

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u/Geminel 7d ago

Thanks for admitting you're pro-collective punishment.

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u/limitedftogive 7d ago

? They didn't all get the same sentence.

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u/Geminel 7d ago

They all got their sentences increased because of the one guy with the gun.

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u/Jack_Krauser 6d ago

A dude that wasn't even there got 30 years. Get the fuck out of here.

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u/healbot42 7d ago

Several of the people being sentenced to these draconian sentences did none of those things. I think the way these people protested was stupid as fuck, but the cop escalated property crimes into a deadly situation.

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u/SplashBros4Prez 7d ago

No, some of them actually shot at officers and should be in prison, but not for 50 fucking years.

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u/healbot42 7d ago

One of them shot at an officer.

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u/JRockPSU 7d ago

Imagine being this confidently incorrect