This article is part of TPM’s ongoing “ Creating the Enemy Within ” project, tracking the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on dissent. As the Trump administration brings anti-Trump activists up on terrorism charges, it’s finding that one state has already cleared a path. In Texas, state prosecutors are using a 2023 anti-terrorism law to investigate and charge what the Trump administration has deemed an “Antifa cell” in a parallel federal prosecution. The investigations center on events surrounding a July 2025 demonstration outside the Prairieland, Texas, ICE detention facility during which a responding police officer was shot. Trial is underway in the federal case, part of a wave of federal material support for terrorism charges filed against activists across the country. Texas prosecutors have their own set of cases stemming from the incident, and have used the recently passed law, SB 1518, to charge people on the periphery of the Prairieland incident. Three people face hindering prosecution of terrorism charges, a crime created by the 2023 law, for allegedly advising or helping people leave digital chatrooms that were used to plan the demonstration. It’s the first kno
