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Two people were arrested in a shooting outside an immigration detention center in July texas The men facing new charges follow President Donald Trump’s order last month to designate a decentralized movement known as Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization.
Autumn Hill and Zachary Evetts were indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday Fort Worth On charges that include providing material support to terrorists and attempting to assassinate US government officials and employees. Federal prosecutors accused him of being a member of an antifa cell that planned the shooting.
Hill and Evetts were already among 11 people facing attempted murder charges related to the July 4 shooting outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, in the southwest. dallasDue to which a police officer was injured.
In a post on Thursday about the new allegations, the Attorney General palm bondi Called Antifa a “left-wing terrorist organization” and said, “They will be prosecuted as such.”
Short for “anti-fascism,” Antifa is not a single organization, but rather an umbrella term for far-left leaning extremist groups that confront or oppose neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.
The indictment says the attack began when a group of people dressed in black and wearing masks, some carrying firearms and wearing body armor, fired fireworks toward the center and vandalized vehicles and a guard shed. Then, as officers responded, according to the indictment, a man yelled, “Get the rifles” and opened fire, hitting an officer.
The indictment says the group brought 10 firearms to the July 4 attack.
Hill’s attorney Cody Cofer said in an emailed statement that the new terrorism-related charge “may be interpreted by some as an attempt to appeal to a mob mentality rather than relying on evidence and the law.”
Lawyers for Evetts did not immediately comment to The Associated Press on Thursday.
The original charges filed in the summer said searches related to the attack turned up items including anti-government material and flyers with political messages, but those documents did not mention Antifa.
Antifa is a domestic entity and, as such, is not a candidate for inclusion on the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. There is no domestic equivalent to that list, partly due to the extensive First Amendment protections received by organizations operating within the United States.
The July 4 shootings come as the Trump administration has stepped up deportations. Days after that shooting, a man with an assault rifle fired dozens of rounds at federal agents and a U.S. Border Patrol facility in McAllen near the Mexico border, wounding a police officer. The officers shot the attacker.