Unlike The Defendants, One Of The Prairieland Judges Is Part Of An Organized Cell of Extremists

Whether you remember his name or not, you've probably been reading about Judge Reed O'Connor and his judicial malevolence for years.

O'Connor is making headlines again for being one of https://www.union-bulletin.com/news/national/7-more-defendants-sentenced-in-texas-in-prairieland-ice-shooting-case/article_7dc8c28e-2563-522c-8ebf-e418b9655bc6.html">two judges to sentence 15 ICE protestors to a combined 547 years in prison.

As the writer Lauren Fadiman https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-invention-of-antifa-fadiman">pointed out in The Baffler, the media often uses "Prairieland ICE shooting" as a misleading shorthand for the protest.

What actually happened is hard to capture in three words. 

On the night of July 4, 2025, about a dozen people held a noise demonstration outside of the ICE Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas.

A few of them vandalized vehicles and guard structures, which cost the detention center around $2,200 to repair.

Some set off fireworks in hopes of catching the attention of detainees, causing federal officers to call 911.

Most of the protesters dispersed before the cops got there.

But one of them, Benjamin "Champagne" Song, said that she saw Alvarado Police Lieutenant Thomas Gross pull out his gun and aim it at the back of an unarmed protester.

Song fired her own gun in response, hitting Alvarado’s shoulder.

The officer sustained minor injuries and was released from the hospital a few hours later.

Song said she was trying to prevent another Renee Good or Alex Pretti from being "gunned down in the street." And maybe she did.

No one died outside of Prairieland that night.

Song and others were charged with attempted murder.

That happened before Charlie Kirk was assassinated.

Shortly after, Donald Trump https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/designating-antifa-as-a-domestic-terrorist-organization/">designated antifa as a domestic terrorist organization and released a https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/2026-USCT-Strategy-1.pdf">counter-terrorism strategy which tied Kirk's death to "extreme transgender ideologies" and identified "violent left-wing extremists" as one of the three major types of terror groups threatening the U.S. government.

The Prairieland defendants—composed of trans people, tattoo artists, and zine-makers—served as the perfect embodiments of Trump's specter of domestic terror.

Multiple defendants weren't even present at the protest, and much of the evidence presented at trial had nothing to do with the events of that night.

Prosecutors weaponized the https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/jun/24/prairieland-texas-ice-protests-zines">possession of stickers which said things like "ACAB," membership in the Socialist Rifle Association, the use of the encrypted messaging app Signal, and all-black clothing as evidence that the defendants were an "antifa terror cell."