DALLAS (AP) — Federal prosecutors told jurors Tuesday that a shooting outside a Texas immigration detention center last year was carried out by members of antifa, opening a closely watched trial that lawyers for the accused say seeks to wrongly punish a group of political demonstrators.

Nine people have pleaded not guilty over their alleged involvement in what prosecutors called an attack on the Prairieland Detention Center near Dallas last July, when a police officer was shot in the neck and wounded.

Eight of the nine face a charge of providing material support to terrorists, which follows President Donald Trump’s order to designate the decentralized movement known as antifa as a domestic terrorist organization. Most of the defendants also face multiple charges, including attempted murder of a law officer.

Lawyers for the defendants say the accused were not members of antifa and were instead taking part in a “noise demonstration” that included fireworks on July 4, 2025, to show support for immigrants inside the center.

“Make no mistake, there’s nothing peaceful about what happened on July Fourth,” prosecutor Shawn Smith told jurors.

The trial is expected to last upward of three weeks. Several defendants face up to live in prison if convicted.

According to the indictment, a group of people clad in black and wearing masks, some carrying firearms and wearing body armor, shot fireworks toward the center and vandalized vehicles and a guard shed. Then, as local officers responded, one person yelled, “get to the rifles” and opened fire, striking the officer, the indictment said.

Smith said that while it was defendant Benjamin Song who opened fire, several other defendants are also charged with attempted murder of a law officer and discharging a firearm because it was foreseeable from the group’s planning that that could happen. Song’s attorney did not give an opening statement Tuesday.

The officer who was shot, Alvarado police Lt. Thomas Gross, was the first witness to testify Tuesday. He said he was responding at about 11 p.m. to a call from the detention center when he saw that there was graffiti on a guard shed and a stop sign and noticed a guard chasing a person clad in black with their face covered.

Gross said he got out of his vehicle and saw another person, also clad in black with their face covered and carrying a rifle.

“At this point the scene is becoming extremely chaotic,” he said.

He told jurors he was shot with a round that went into his shoulder and out of his neck.

Defense attorneys told jurors that their clients could only be judged for their own individual actions. “It’s a trial within a trial,” said attorney Chris Tolbert, who is representing Savanna Batten.

He said his client didn’t bring a firearm, spray paint or fireworks to the center. He said that while the government claims that her book club — named for the anarchist Emma Goldman — is a recruiting ground for antifa, it’s just a book club.

“She’s not a member of antifa, she’s not providing material support to terrorists,” Tolbert said.

Short for “anti-fascists,” antifa is not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for far-left-leaning militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations. FBI Director Kash Patel has said the charges in Texas are the first time a material support to terrorism charge has targeted people he said were antifa members.

James Luster, the attorney for defendant Autumn Hill, said Hill has a deep conviction for people she feels are marginalized, including immigrants. Luster said that after watching fireworks being shot into the sky, Hill left before the police arrived.

“It was never supposed to come to this,” Luster said.

Several people have already pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists after being accused of supporting antifa related to the July 4 shooting. They face up to 15 years in prison at sentencing.

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — Legal advocates filed a motion Tuesday seeking to stop U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents from urging immigrant children entering the country without their parents to voluntarily deport themselves under a federal policy introduced last year.

Border agents who arrest unaccompanied immigrant children who enter the country illegally are required by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 to send them to a federal shelter under a different agency, the Office of Refugee Resettlement. At the shelters, children have access to attorneys and an immigration judge, and they can talk to their parents over the phone before they agree to self-deport or seek other options.

The new policy introduces the self-deportation option before children enter the shelter, a practice that started in September 2025, according to testimony from CBP officials filed in the lawsuit.

If children decline to voluntarily return, the policy threatens to detain them for long periods of time, arrest and prosecute their adult sponsors living in the U.S., and bar them from applying for a visa in the future, legal advocates said in Tuesday’s motion.

The attorneys, representing Guatemalan children following the government’s unsuccessful attempt to deport dozens of them in a haphazard overnight flight in August, say the policy violates a current injunction in place. The injunction prohibits the government from deporting any Guatemalan unaccompanied minors unless they have gone through some immigration court proceeding.

The attorneys are also asking the judge to expand the injunction to cover children from other countries, excluding Mexico and Canada.

CBP did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

Some children told attorneys that agents threatened, yelled and coerced them into signing documents they did not fully understand, sometimes due to language barriers.

One girl said an agent forcefully convinced her to sign the papers after she had hurt her leg in a car crash and denied medical treatment.

“I thought I had to sign, but I didn’t know why or what for,” she said in a written declaration filed with the court.

Mishan Wroe, an attorney with the National Center for Youth law, said these minors are not afforded the opportunities granted to them under federal law.

“It’s plainly coercive to threaten children with prolonged detention while they are scared and not given the opportunity to speak to counsel or their family before they make a decision that has grave implications for their future,” Wroe said Tuesday.

Michael Julien, a CBP official, wrote in his declaration filed with the court Tuesday that agents only present the self-deport option to some unaccompanied children crossing illegally, and that it is an option presented orally, not in writing.

Attorneys found 13 cases in South Texas where children were subjected to the new policy, but they believe there are more.

“We believe that this is happening to many, many more children and that the 13 that are mentioned in our motion are just those that kind of slipped through the cracks,” Kate Talmor, senior counsel at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.

She said attorneys were only able to find out and intervene on behalf of the 13 children because even though they signed documents to return to their country under CBP custody, a flight was not found in time and they were sent to a shelter.

The federal government will have two weeks to file their opposition and then the judge can determine to intervene and stop the policy from being enforced on Guatemalan children and whether to expand the protection to children from other countries.