Lawyers for Texas Anti-ICE Agitators Try to Discredit Anti-Antifa Witness by Citing Group That Carries Water for Antifa
15th March 2026
Lawyers representing alleged Antifa members who set off fireworks outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas and who later shot a police officer tried to discredit an anti-Antifa witness by citing a group that carries water for Antifa.
Federal prosecutors have charged nine defendants with various crimes for their July 4, 2025, riot outside the Prairieland ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas. A federal grand jury convicted eight of them on the charge of riot and providing material support to terrorists on Friday. While most charges did not rely on the claim that rioters were part of Antifa, the indictment describes the defendants as an “Antifa Cell.”
During the trial, prosecutors brought in Kyle Shideler, director and senior analyst for homeland security and counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy, as an expert witness on Antifa. Defense lawyers objected, citing the Southern Poverty Law Center, a far-left activist group that has carried water for Antifa, to delegitimize his testimony.