by Olivia Rosane | Mar 16, 2026 | Article, First Amendment, free speech, ICE, Politics and Movements: US, Prisons and Policing, Reprint
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Mar. 15, 2026. It is shared here under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
The government has largely won its first case bringing material-support-for-terrorism charges against protesters alleged to belong to “antifa,” which President Donald Trump designated as a domestic terror group in 2025 despite the fact that no such organized group exists and the president has no legal authority to designate organizations as domestic terror groups.
A federal jury in Fort Worth, Texas agreed on Friday to convict eight people of domestic terrorism because they wore all black to a protest outside Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado, Texas on July 4, 2025, at which one of the protesters shot and wounded a police officer. Legal experts say the verdict could bolster attempts by the administration to stifle dissent.
“A case like this helps the government kind of see how far they can go in criminalizing constitutionally protected protests and also helps them kind of intimidate, increase the fear, hoping that folks in other cities then will think twice over protesting,” Suzanne Adely, interim president of the National Lawyers Guild, told The Associated Press.
The administration promised it would be the first such case of many.
“The US lost today with this verdict.”
“Antifa is a domestic terrorist organization that has been allowed to flourish in Democrat-led cities—not under President Trump,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement Friday. “Today’s verdict on terrorism charges will not be the last as the Trump administration systematically dismantles Antifa and finally halts their violence on America’s streets.”
The trial revolved around a nighttime protest at which participants planned to set off fireworks in solidarity with the around 1,000 migrants detained inside the Prarieland ICE facility. Some participants brought guns,
by Olivia Rosane | Mar 15, 2026 | antifa, Donald Trump, free speech, ICE, News, terrorism, Texas
The government has largely won its first case bringing material-support-for-terrorism charges against protesters alleged to belong to “antifa,” which President Donald Trump designated as a domestic terror group in 2025 despite the fact that no such organized group exists and the president has no legal authority to designate organizations as domestic terror groups. A federal jury in Fort Worth…
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by Blanca Missé | Mar 11, 2026 | academic freedom, Activism, Criminalization, criminalization of dissent, Dissent, free speech, history, ICE, labor, Op-Ed, Organizing, palestine solidarity, protest, Red Scare, The Red Scare, Trump Administration, Unions
On July 10, 2025, as federal agents stormed cannabis farms in Ventura County, California, community members rushed to protest what they saw as yet another sweeping Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid. Among them was Jonathan Caravello, a 37-year-old philosophy lecturer at California State University Channel Islands. Today, he faces a federal felony charge that could send him to prison…
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by Marianne Dhenin | Mar 9, 2026 | AAUP, Dissent, education, free speech, Higher Education, Israel, News, Palestine, palestine solidarity, Protests, Repression, retaliation
It has been more than a year since the tents and banners of 2024’s pro-Palestine student encampments came down. But dozens of faculty members, staff, and students nationwide are still navigating the backlash that followed, fighting continued campus repression. “This is not a time to be timid; it’s not a time to be overly cautious,” Anna Feder told Truthout. Feder had been working for Emerson…
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by Julia Malleck | Feb 20, 2026 | DHS, First Amendment, free speech, immigration, Interview, Social Media, Surveillance, Trump Administration, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS
The Trump administration is expanding its surveillance of social media — and targeting both documented immigrants and U.S. citizens. Documented spoke to Emile Ayoub, a senior counsel in the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, about a new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) vetting rule, greenlit last week, that he says poses a serious threat to privacy and…
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by Jake Johnson | Feb 13, 2026 | free speech, News, Palestine, Palestine Action, UK
The British High Court ruled Friday that the United Kingdom government’s ban on the anti-genocide advocacy group Palestine Action was unlawful, a decision that campaigners cheered as a major victory while also demanding the dismissal of all charges against those arrested and imprisoned for backing the group. The UK-based Stop the War Coalition noted that roughly 3,000…
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