8 convicted in Texas detention center shooting get up to 100 years
One gunman got 100 years after the Prairieland detention center ambush, while seven others drew 30 to 70 years in a case prosecutors cast as terror.
Benjamin Hanil Song was sentenced to 100 years in federal prison on June 23, the maximum term in the Prairieland detention center shooting case, while seven other defendants received sentences ranging from 30 to 70 years for their roles in the attack outside the Texas facility near Alvarado.
Song, a former U.S. Marine Corps reservist, opened fire during the July 4, 2025 protest outside the Prairieland ICE Detention Center, where an Alvarado police officer was wounded in the neck. The Justice Department identified the defendants as part of a North Texas Antifa Cell. The group spent months planning the attack. The assault involved rioting, fireworks, vandalism, gunfire, weapons and explosives, obstruction, material support to terrorists, and attempted murder.
Nine people were convicted in March 2026 after a 12-day trial. At one point, 12 people had been charged in connection with the investigation, and Song’s arrest in Dallas ended a weeklong manhunt. The defendants had joined an organized attack against officers at the detention center just after 10:30 p.m. on July 4.
Judge Reed O’Connor called the conduct an assault on democracy and emphasized deterrence. Defense lawyers rejected the government’s terrorism theory and disputed the claim that their clients belonged to a centralized antifa organization, while supporters said they had come to back detained immigrants rather than to carry out violence. One family member, Lydia Koza, said she was “livid” after her wife, Autumn Hill, received a 50-year sentence, arguing the government was punishing protest attendance rather than criminal conduct.
The sentences came one day before the first anniversary of the attack.
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