LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Nine people are set to go on trial today in a federal court in Fort Worth, Texas. They're standing trial in connection to a nonfatal shooting outside an ICE detention facility last July Fourth.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
On that date, about a dozen people protested outside the Prairieland Detention Center, which is in Alvarado, Texas. They objected to President Trump's immigration crackdown and deportation efforts. Police and prosecutors say shots were fired and a local police officer was injured.
FADEL: Penelope Rivera with member station KERA in Dallas joins me to talk more about how the federal government is prosecuting this case. Good morning.
PENELOPE RIVERA, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: So tell us more about the shooting. What happened?
RIVERA: So the people that gathered there that night said that it was meant to be a noise demonstration with fireworks to show solidarity with those inside the facility. According to the affidavit, 11 people showed up around 10:30 p.m., and some people started setting off fireworks while others graffitied cars in the parking lot. Then, 20 minutes later, when a local police officer arrived, someone from the nearby woods began shooting. Those 11 protesters were arrested for being there that night, but there's now 19 people total charged for having an alleged connection to the incident. But different defendants face different charges.
FADEL: OK. So people at protests get arrested often, but this is different. What's unusual about the charges the federal government is bringing in this case?
RIVERA: So what's unique about it in this case is the type of charges that the federal government has filed. Eight people are facing providing material to support terrorist charges. One of the nine is accused of attempted murder of a federal officer. The U.S. attorney's office called the indictment against the nine defendants the first in the country against a group of violent antifa cell members.
Jason Blazakis, executive director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism, said there's no doubt that something bad happened the night of July Fourth. But he says it's a stretch to connect this case to prosecute protesters as members of antifa.
JASON BLAZAKIS: I think we see the blueprint with the charges from July Fourth that the administration is going to go to great lengths and really act as a contortionist to try to paint a picture of any far-left perceived violence as being antifa-oriented.
RIVERA: Last September, the Trump administration declared antifa a domestic terrorist organization, and it's the first of its kind in history.
FADEL: What are the defendants saying about the charges?
RIVERA: Well, prosecutors called the shooting an ambush and a coordinated attack against law enforcement. And I've communicated with six of the individuals arrested in connection to the protest. That includes Meagan Morris. She told me that she attended to show support for those detained at the Prairieland Detention Center and had no indication that anything violent was meant to occur that night.
MEAGAN MORRIS: This whole narrative that the government wants to spin about a preplanned ambush - that's ridiculous. That's a suicide mission, right? I have a family. I have friends. I have all these things that I would not give up just to roll up and commit some senseless act of violence against a random police officer.
RIVERA: She pled not guilty and maintains her innocence.
FADEL: So what could the repercussions of this case be?
RIVERA: So there's no federal criminal statute to charge people for domestic terrorism like there is for foreign terrorism. And it's still unclear whether the president has the authority to designate people or groups as domestic terrorists. According to former federal prosecutors I've talked to, if the government succeeds in getting these individuals convicted, it could have nationwide implications for how alleged left-wing movements are prosecuted.
FADEL: That was Penelope Rivera from KERA in Texas. Thank you, Penelope.
RIVERA: Thank you.
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