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For five months, <\/span>Daniel Sanchez Estrada was the prisoner of a government that has branded him an \u201cAntifa Cell operative<\/a>.\u201d He was accused of moving a box of anarchist zines from one suburb of Dallas to another after a protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.<\/p>\n On the day before Thanksgiving, he was released without warning or explanation. He walked out to a jail parking lot relishing the fresh air \u2014 and watching over his shoulder.<\/p>\n During the week that followed, Sanchez Estrada savored his time with family members and worried that his release might have been an accident. Apparently, he was right.<\/p>\n \u201cI just have to go through this process. It\u2019s necessary to show that I\u2019m not the person they say I am.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n On Thursday, Sanchez Estrada turned himself in to await a trial that could be months away.<\/p>\n It was another swerve in the case of a man who has been demonized by the federal government for actions he took after a protest against Donald Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown<\/a>. Civil liberties advocates have decried the case against him as \u201cguilt by literature.\u201d (The U.S Attorney\u2019s Office for the Northern District of Texas declined to comment and the Federal Bureau of Prisons did not immediately respond to a request.)<\/p>\n In a Wednesday night interview during his final hours of freedom, Sanchez Estrada said the decision to voluntarily surrender himself was gut-wrenching.<\/p>\n \u201cAs scary as it is, I\u2019m innocent,\u201d he said. \u201cI just have to go through this process. It\u2019s necessary to show that I\u2019m not the person they say I am. I\u2019m not fleeing. I\u2019m not hiding. Because I\u2019m innocent. I haven\u2019t done anything.\u201d<\/p>\n Sanchez Estrada spoke to The Intercept outside an ice cream shop in an upscale shopping mall in Fort Worth, Texas. He was set to turn himself back into jail 16 hours after the interview \u2014 but before that, he was treating his 12-year-old stepdaughter to sweets during his first meeting with her as a free man since his arrest in July.<\/p>\n Prosecutors allege that Sanchez Estrada\u2019s wife, Maricela Rueda, attended a chaotic protest outside ICE\u2019s Prairieland Detention Center on July 4 that ended with a police officer wounded by gunfire. A separate defendant is the sole person accused of firing a gun at the officer.<\/p>\n The gathering outside the Alvarado, Texas, detention center happened in the context of huge rise in the number of immigrants detained under Trump<\/a>, from 39,000 in January to 65,000 in November, which has been accompanied by reports of dire conditions inside<\/a>.<\/p>\n Supporters of the Prairieland defendants say the protesters hoped to cause a ruckus with fireworks in a show of solidarity. The government has accused members of what it dubs the \u201cNorth Texas antifa cell\u201d of rioting and attempted murder.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n No one claims that Sanchez Estrada was present at the protest. Instead, he is accused of moving anarchist zines from his parents\u2019 house to another residence near Dallas on July 6 after Rueda called him from jail. Sanchez Estrada was arrested when the move was spotted by an FBI surveillance team, according to the government.<\/p>\n \u201cMy charge is allegedly having a box containing magazine \u2018zines,\u2019 books, and artwork.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Prosecutors said the zines contained \u201canti-law enforcement, anti-government and anti-Trump sentiments.\u201d In a statement made outside of his interview, Sanchez Estrada said that possession of such items is clearly protected by the First Amendment.<\/p>\n \u201cMy charge is allegedly having a box containing magazine \u2018zines,\u2019 books, and artwork,\u201d Sanchez Estrada said. \u201cItems that should be protected under the First Amendment \u2018freedom of speech.\u2019 If this is happening to me now, it\u2019s only a matter of time before it happens to you.\u201d<\/p>\n Civil liberties groups such as the Freedom of the Press Foundation have denounced his case as \u201cguilt by literature.\u201d<\/a> They warn that his could be the first of many such prosecutions in the wake of a presidential memo from Trump targeting \u201cantifa\u201d<\/a> and other forms of \u201canti-Americanism<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n The purported \u201cNorth Texas antifa cell\u201d has been cited by FBI Director Kash Patel and others as a prime example of a supposed surge in the number of attacks on ICE officers \u2014 although a recent Los Angeles Times analysis<\/a> found that unlike the incident in Texas, most of those alleged attacks resulted in no injury.<\/p>\n Sanchez Estrada faces up to 20 years on counts of corruptly concealing a document or record and conspiracy to conceal documents. The stakes are higher for him than other defendants because he is a green card holder, which ICE spotlighted in a social media post<\/a> that included his picture and immigration history.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
Prairieview Protest<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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