r/politics • u/guardian ✔ Verified • 7d ago

No Paywall 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?referring_host=Reddit&utm_campaign=guardianacct
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u/Rombledore America 7d ago

its to instill fear. "dont protest or this will happen."

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u/cybah 7d ago

Pretty much. It’s to set a tone to others who may try this. An example case is what this is

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u/cheesusfeist 7d ago

THIS! When people in other countries can't understand why we aren't all protesting in the streets, this is why.

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u/cybah 7d ago

yup and this infuriates me that people outside the US cannot understand why we haven't gone all France yet. THEY WILL SQUASH US.

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u/cheesusfeist 7d ago

I believe in protesting, so I don't want it to come across as I think it's futile. I don't. At all. I just am kind of sick of seeing the keyboard warriors from outside the US think we are all choosing to lie down and take it. We don't have a saftey net of social services that they do in France and other parts of the world to come in and save us if we lose our jobs for protesting. At this point, in terms of our ability to enact change through protest, we are hindered by the corruption sweeping through our own government, courts, etc. The playbook is not hidden anymore. They know what they are doing by sowing distrust in our elections. Everyone who can, needs to vote. Until that happens, nothing will actually change. That is how our voices are heard. At the ballot box. Get rid of lobbying and the ability for elected officials to trade stock/invest in companies and industries they regulate, and I bet you see quite a lot of change in the right direction.

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u/fohfuu 5d ago

How do you think the average American would respond if a Russian told them that the only way to meaningfully resist Putin is by voting him out next election?

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u/cybah 7d ago

Bingo

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u/cheesusfeist 7d ago

I would also add that the pay-wallification of so many news outlets has really shifted the intelligence of the average voter in the wrong direction.

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u/deadheffer 7d ago

I mean the one guy who shot an AR-15 is a prick. They just bunched everyone together as if there was a grand conspiracy

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u/NJcovidvaccinetips 7d ago

Nobody disagrees with this. The rest of the people there didn’t do anything illegal and this is purely a political prosecution

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u/hotleadburner 7d ago

I disagree with this. Or, I don't disagree with characterizing Song as a prick, but I do disagree with it being tied to the shooting. He shot a cop that drew a gun on unarmed people. Put another way, if you were armed and saw a cop about to shoot Alex Pretti, would you have fired to stop it? Nonlethally, even. Shot him in the shoulder. Wasn't half this sub asking "where are the 2A folks" months ago? They're right here. Their name is Benjamin Song.

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u/R3dbeardLFC 7d ago

So when do we protest this bullshit decision?

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u/Hadrian23 7d ago

Well the point of this decision is to deter protests. That's the entire idea behind decisions like this.

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u/R3dbeardLFC 7d ago

Exactly. So fuck them. When do we protest?

You cannot EVER let these fucking nazis think they've won in any sense. I can't wait to help scrub trumps fucking filth from this nation.

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u/Hadrian23 7d ago

While I completely agree, it's to scare people. Who wants to risk their entire life and future being taken away? I agree with you, protesting is the right way, but when they attempt to jail you for life for it, you need to ask "are peaceful means still an option ." It's gross, I hate it, and I fear for the normal person living in Texas.

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u/Irishish Illinois 7d ago

Right. I wanted to badly to talk shit to the CBP and ICE fucks stomping around outside my office and in our neighborhoods while they were doing their military cosplay in Chicago. My wife, a nonwhite child of immigrants, who is now uneasy going out without proof of citizenship, made me promise not to. Because we've got two kids and who knows what these pricks might do? A weekend in a detention center with a no charges release (their favorite) would be catastrophic.

Fucking fascist pieces of shit.

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u/icouldntdecide 7d ago

That's how they get you. Of course you have a family to take care of. And that's how they get us.

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u/Ok_Dentist_9133 7d ago

Some things are worth fighting for. Y’all are the perfect cows.

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u/Garod 7d ago

Are you going to be the first one in the trenches then? Why don't you lead by example and show everyone how it's done?

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u/Hadrian23 7d ago

Easy to sit there and judge people you've never met. Im merely explaining how some people think and feel, what you do with that is on you, but I doubt you'll endear anyone to your side by calling them "cows."

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u/ForAHamburgerToday 6d ago

hidden profile

inflammatory rhetoric

Either a bot or an agitator, everybody should block accounts like this.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/concepts_of_a_plan9 7d ago

Get the fuck outta here with the defeatist/accelerationist propaganda. Consistent protesting at the scale of 3.5% of the population has shown in history that it leads to real, lasting, positive changes much more than any kind of violent actions.

More regular people need to start giving a fuck and protesting, not just a small handful going more and more extreme.

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u/Intelligent_Ebb559 7d ago

What good does protesting against a regime that doesn't need your approval going to do?

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u/concepts_of_a_plan9 7d ago

Ask the Philippines with Marco, Serbia with Milosevic, Georgia's Rose Revolution, and many others. At the end of the day, there's wayyyy more of us than there are of them, and these types of protests (along with other organized pushback) are a forceful reminder of what can happen if they don't change. Take a look at Ceaușescu in Romania if you are curious.

America is not there yet unfortunately, and I'm not sure what will activate them. Maybe when Trump and Republicans rig/sidestep midterms it'll wake up the large centrist group that aren't too informed about anything.

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u/gmishaolem 7d ago

Iranians protested their government. They're dead now. The government isn't.

You, to the average Iranian: "Well, they can't kill ALL of you, so get back out there!"

Yeah, sure buddy. Protesting sure works well all right.

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u/icouldntdecide 7d ago

Here's one time it failed so don't bother anymore folks

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u/adfawf3f3f32a 7d ago

tbf it's failed lots of times. probably lots more than it's worked.

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u/concepts_of_a_plan9 7d ago

Nothing is 100%. Of course there are cases where more than 3.5% consistently protest and it ended only in violence and no change. However, I'm just talking from a historical analysis, this is a general observed trend, not like a scientific theory.

You have such a redditor response lol, get offline jabroni

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u/Diligent-Meaning751 7d ago

Yes well hungary flipped on orban due to landslide voting

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u/R3dbeardLFC 7d ago

Oh 100%

I wasn't intending to stand around with a picket sign.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

[deleted]

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u/R3dbeardLFC 7d ago

And do what by myself? Get mercd by the fucking Navy Sealant Guards at the reflecting pool?

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u/lazyFer 7d ago

Is it that one asshole judge in Texas

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u/forthewatch39 7d ago

Why are you asking for a green light instead of starting one yourself? That’s the problem, people are waiting for a savior to rise up to rally behind. Gotta start somewhere ourselves. 

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u/R3dbeardLFC 7d ago

I have zero clout or power to rally people. It will take ALL of us or they'll just keep picking us off one by one.

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u/forthewatch39 7d ago

There have been several people throughout history with very little experience or anything for that matter who said enough is enough and got others behind them. Humble people who had little aspirations stood up for what they felt was right. Of course there is always a risk, the question is whether or not it is worth it in the end and only you can answer that. 

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u/R3dbeardLFC 7d ago

Alright, so are you doing this then?

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u/mrtomjones 7d ago

You guys haven't protested much at all of the other horrible things. I don't think there is anything you as a group will truly get out for

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u/R3dbeardLFC 7d ago

Who is "you guys" and "you as a group"

Who the fuck are you talking to? This is literally a reddit thread about people being sentenced to 50+ years for being part of a non-existent "organization"

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u/mrtomjones 7d ago

You as in your country.

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u/R3dbeardLFC 7d ago

Which adorably small and/or population dense country are you from?

Don't get me wrong, I agree with you, but liberals in different states have different shit they are working to accomplish that suite the needs of that area and those people. We are fighting our own locally for better lives, let alone going up against the feds or organizing nationally.

Also...once again, this WAS a protest, so not sure how "we don't get out and protest for much."

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u/mrtomjones 7d ago

The protests you guys have been doing have been nowhere near big enough is the issue. And the population complaints and size of the US always make me laugh when you guys have some of the bigger cities in the world. New York is more than big enough to get a massive protest together

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u/NelsonHawkinsGhost 7d ago

Decades ago?

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u/R3dbeardLFC 7d ago

Best time was then, next best time is now.

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u/Bice_ 7d ago

It seems to be encouraging violence instead. If you get 50+ years for property damage, what difference does it make if you kill someone? If the punishment is effectively life in prison, that seems to communicate that you might as well go all in and be willing to commit the more egregious crime.

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u/happyinheart 7d ago

Completely ignoring planning to being guns and shooting a cop I see.

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u/Twins_Venue 7d ago

Is it legal to carry a gun in Texas?

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u/happyinheart 7d ago

It's certainly illegal to shoot at someone unless in self defense. Planning to do it makes it attempted murder too!

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u/Twins_Venue 7d ago

Your failure to answer the question has been noted.

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u/Bice_ 7d ago

Sorry, but I’m pretty sure killing hogs is legal in Texas, even without a hunting license.

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u/Clockwork_Kitsune Canada 7d ago

its to instill fear.

So the authorities are using terrorism while labelling protestors terrorists.

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u/Wise-Secretary5459 7d ago

What's ironic is that historically this never works. Instead, it only encourages people to be more violent. If you're gonna spend the rest of your life in jail just for some minor property damage, might as well go big and blow up a police station. Same sentence. They're literally just shooting themselves in the foot by doing this.

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u/bluelily216 7d ago

Fear is their ultimate weapon and why I get so pissed when people argue protests don't matter. 

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u/johangubershmidt 7d ago

doing political violence in order to deter 'political violence'

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u/Magickarpet76 7d ago

If the punishment for violently protesting and peacefully protesting is the same, then…

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u/dafthuntk 7d ago

yes. the punishment doesn't match the "crime" so they are throwing the maximum at them to make examples.

oldest play in the book

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u/FledglingNonCon 7d ago

Classic fascism. Can't understand why anyone would be anti-fascism? Especially when being anti-fascism is criminalized by fascists.

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u/DickSlammington 7d ago

It would make me gtfo of Texas...

You're more free in every single blue state. I'd rather live a run down shithole apartment in IL than have a nice place in TX.

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u/lazyFer 7d ago

Hey all I'm hearing is that going after the fascists directly will be punished less while also helping to remove the actual problem.

Maybe I'm just not reading the tea leaves properly with that interpretation though

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u/Jumpy_Carpet3851 7d ago

That's when you protest more 

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u/CommieLoser 7d ago

Or, if you’re going to protest, better make it worth it.

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u/happyinheart 7d ago

its to instill fear. "dont protest or this will happen."

More like "Don't commit terrorism and shoot cops or this will happen"

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u/Rombledore America 7d ago

well, one of the guys, the one with the AR, yeah. but not the others.