FBI Director Kash Patel announced Thursday that federal prosecutors have secured the first-ever terrorism charges against Antifa members, following a coordinated attack on an ICE detention facility in Texas that left a police officer shot in the neck.
“First time ever: the FBI arrested Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremists and terrorism charges have been brought for the July 4 Prairieland ICE attack in Texas,” Patel posted on X. “Under President Trump’s new authorities we’ve made 20+ arrests. No one gets to harm law enforcement. Not on my watch.”
Cameron Arnold of Dallas and Zachary Evetts of Waxahachie were charged Wednesday with providing material support to terrorists, attempting to murder federal officers, and discharging firearms during attempted murders. The indictment was unsealed Thursday.
Both men were previously arrested in July along with eight others and charged with attempted murder and weapons offenses, but the grand jury indictment adds the terrorism charge.
“This was a planned and coordinated terrorist attack on the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, where armed extremists tried to murder U.S. officers on July 4th,” Patel told Fox News.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi emphasized the significance of the terrorism charges.
“As @POTUS has made clear, Antifa is a left-wing terrorist organization. They will be prosecuted as such,” Bondi posted on X.
The charges follow President Donald Trump’s executive order last month designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.
A group of masked individuals dressed in black attacked the Prairieland Detention Center on the night of July 4. The suspects allegedly used fireworks as a distraction while vandalizing vehicles and security cameras in the parking lot. When an Alvarado police officer tried to engage with a person from the group, multiple suspects opened fire with semiautomatic rifles. At least one bullet struck the officer in the neck, according to the indictment. He was flown to a hospital for treatment and later released.
Authorities said Arnold and Evetts were part of an Antifa terror cell that conducted extensive planning before the attack. Arnold allegedly trained others in firearm use and close-quarters combat. The group was heavily armed with over 50 firearms purchased in Fort Worth, Grand Prairie, Dallas and other areas, according to the indictment.
Arnold allegedly built multiple AR-platform rifles, some of which he distributed to co-defendants, including at least one fitted with a binary trigger, which allows two rounds to fire per trigger pull. The indictment states that when police began to respond to the attack, Arnold yelled, “Get to the rifles!” Seconds later, the indictment alleges, a co-conspirator opened fire on officers, striking the Alvarado officer in the neck as unarmed correctional officers ducked and ran for cover.
Arnold, Evetts and others used an encrypted messaging app to coordinate their moves, according to the DOJ. The investigation found that one member of the group wrote “I’m done with peaceful protests” and “Blue lives don’t matter” as part of those conversations.
Antifa expert Andy Ngo identified Arnold as a member of a violent “Trantifa” cell.
“Two members of a North Texas Antifa cell have been federally indicted with federal terrorism charges over an ambush shooting on an ICE facility where an officer was shot in the neck. Cameron Arnold (‘Autumn Hill’), a Trantifa, and Zachary Evetts were indicted with providing material support to terrorists,” Ngo posted on X.
A total of 15 suspects have been arrested in connection with the case. The mugshots of 10 of them were released shortly after they were taken into custody in July. In July 2025, additional charges were filed against a twelfth suspect, Benjamin Hanil Song, for his alleged role in supplying weapons used during the incident.
Defense attorneys for Arnold and Evetts argued that anti-government beliefs and “antifa thinking” are not grounds for a crime. Arnold’s lawyer, Cody Cofer, said he looks forward to defending his client at trial. Evetts’s lawyer, Patrick McLain, said his client is innocent and accused prosecutors of adding the terrorism charges for political reasons. “I have seen no evidence from the prosecutors to support any of the charges,” McLain told Reuters.
A federal judge in Fort Worth previously decided that Arnold and Evetts must remain behind bars, along with six others tied to the case. Neither Arnold nor Evetts has entered a plea in the case. Both are set to do so at an October 22 court hearing.
Arnold and Evetts face up to 20 years in prison if convicted on the terrorism charges.
The Prairieland Detention Center houses between 1,000 and 2,000 illegal immigration detainees. The attack occurred around 11 p.m. on July 4 as the facility was operating normally.