The Road to Prairieland

The Crackdown on Anti-ICE Activists in Texas Reflects a Pattern of Intensifying Repression

https://crimethinc.com/Prairieland

Pay attention to the Prairieland case that goes to trial in Texas next week.

By saddling the defendants with indiscriminate charges, holding them without bail, and isolating them from lawyers and the public, prosecutors are attempting to terrorize them into signing guilty pleas in order to set a precedent criminalizing dissent itself.

Some of the defendants in the Prairieland case apparently never set foot anywhere near the protest in question. Just as authorities sought to crush the #StopCopCity movement by randomly indicting people on baseless charges, here they aim to scare people out of acting in solidarity with immigrants.

The murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti show what lies at the end of this road. In those public executions, there is no role for the judicial branch of government at all—the executive branch chooses the target, pulls the trigger, and declares the victims guilty of terrorism afterwards. That is the kind of "justice" that the Trump administration aims to carry out. If they get away with what they are trying to do to the Prairieland defendants, we will be a step closer to that.