Another Person Arrested in Connection to Prairieland ICE Detention Center Protest

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 13, 2025
CONTACT: DFW Support Committee
EMAIL: dfwsupportcommittee@hacari.com

Another Person Arrested in Connection to Prairieland ICE Detention Center Protest on July 4, Bringing Total Number of Arrests to 17, Prompting a Public Statement from Supporters

People Are Being Held on Bonds of Up to $15 Million, But Most People Currently in Custody Have No Formal Charges and No Legal Representation More Than a Month After the Incident

DALLAS-FORT WORTH, TX — Another person was arrested last week in connection with the Prairieland Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Detention Center protest on July 4, 2025, bringing the total number of arrests in the case to 17. Susan Kent was arrested by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office on August 7 and is currently being held on a $10 million bond at Johnson County Jail. Sixteen people arrested in connection to the Prairieland protest are being held at Johnson County Jail on bonds of up to $15 million. One defendant is being held separately at Federal Medical Center, Fort Worth. Kent is being accused of engaging in organized criminal activity and hindering the prosecution of terrorism, but the state has released no information regarding the arrest and the probable cause documents have not been made public.

Most people currently in custody have no formal charges and have no legal representation more than a month after the incident. No progress has occurred in any of the cases, and no hearings or legal proceedings are currently scheduled.

The July 4 demonstrations outside of the ICE Detention Center were a typical immigrant solidarity protest that has since turned into a massive federal investigation. During the planned “noise” demonstration at the facility, ICE agents called the local police. When an officer from the Alvarado Police Department arrived, an altercation occurred, after which the officer claimed to have sustained a minor injury. Police arrested 10 people near the scene, including some blocks away, on the basis that they were dressed alike, and seven more were arrested in subsequent weeks. During that time, local and federal agents have terrorized friends and family members of those arrested at the protest, serving no-knock warrants, conducting house raids, making arrests at traffic stops, and engaging in widespread surveillance. Multiple people arrested were not even at the protest.

The DFW support committee, a group of family and friends of defendants in this case, released a statement today, repudiating the arrest of Kent, one of its members, and connecting it to a wider pattern of state repression against anti-ICE protestors.

“We denounce this escalation by the state in its desperate attempts to criminalize people showing solidarity with those being kidnapped by ICE and to undermine dissent against rising authoritarianism,” says the statement. It goes on to say, “We are devastated at Susan’s arrest, but we are not deterred. We call on those who support resistance and seek a freer world to stand up against this brutality and repression.”

To read the entire statement released today by the DFW Support Committee, go to: https://dfwdefendants.wordpress.com/2025/08/13/public-statement-august-…

The expansion of this case was also alarming to experts on political repression. Meagan Knuth from the National Lawyers Guild said, “We’re seeing a rise in these sorts of cases against protestors from North Texas, to Spokane, Washington, to Portland, Oregon, but as we’ve seen in Los Angeles, once these cases go to court, they have been dropped for lack of evidence.”

Members of the support committee also expressed concern for Kent’s well-being while in custody in Johnson County Jail. “We’ve seen horrific treatment of the defendants while they’ve been in custody,” said Stephanie Shiver, defendant Meagan Morris’s wife. “People have been kept in forced isolation, subject to incessant, degrading strip searches, even for those who haven’t left their cells in days, and barred from communicating with family or attorneys,” continued Shiver. “Someone was even forced to clean another inmate’s feces off the walls of their cell.”

The statement goes on to connect the continued arrest of protestors in North Texas to the pattern of family separation seen in the national wave of detentions by ICE saying, “The Prairieland defendants are not terrorists. The real terrorists are the ICE agents kidnapping people off the street, destroying families and communities.”

Statement from the DFW Support Committee:

We are aggrieved to report that the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office has arrested another member of the Dallas-Fort Worth community in relation to the July 4th Prairieland ICE Detention Center protest, bringing the total number of defendants in the case to seventeen. This person, Susan Kent, was also a member of the DFW Support Committee, the defense committee for the Prairieland Defendants. Like the rest of the defendants, their bond amount is set to an absurd and prohibitive $10 million. We denounce this escalation by the state in its desperate attempts to criminalize people showing solidarity with those being kidnapped by ICE and to undermine dissent against rising authoritarianism.

From the beginning, this case has been rife with inconsistencies, unbelievable accusations, and violence against the defendants and their loved ones. We do not know the state’s allegations against Susan, but we believe this arrest is part of the state’s attempt to terrorize the residents of Dallas-Fort Worth. To arrest someone well over a month after the July 4th event signals the state’s dogged attempt to tear through this community. Susan was actively working to support the defendants, to advocate for them to get the best legal defense possible and encourage them to exercise their constitutional rights. Forcing this person to endure the same horrific conditions as the defendants they were working to support fits the state’s tactics of repression in this case: brutalizing defendants’ family members, conducting violent raids, subjecting defendants to solitary confinement, incessantly strip searching defendants, and other cruelty, such as forcing a defendant to clean feces off the walls of their cell. This case is emblematic of the outrageous arrests happening around the country, including in Spokane, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, as well as the unnecessary federalization of police in Washington DC, all while legal cases against protestors in Los Angeles are falling apart due to lack of evidence. These actions by the state are not meant to seek justice or truth. They instead intend to terrify us and fracture solidarity among our movements. But we won’t let them succeed.

Our friends and loved ones sought to show support for immigrants and ICE detainees facing brutal violence at the hands of the state. The Prairieland defendants are not terrorists. The real terrorists are the ICE agents kidnapping people off the street, destroying families and communities. We are devastated at Susan’s arrest, but we are not deterred. We call on those who support resistance and seek a freer world to stand up against this brutality and repression. For more information about the Prairieland defendants and how you can help raise funds for their defense, please go to dfwdefendants.wordpress.com or donate to the crowd fundraiser at givesendgo.com/supportDFWprotestors.

Comments

anon (not verified) Wed, 08/13/2025 - 11:43

5:22 PM 7/31/2025

I want to write hopeful things
I want to make believe
A wish came and tickled my nose as I bathed
In Sunshine, in the form of a single dandelion seed.
I found a baby bird feather that I treasure,
like memories of tasting what it means to be free.
I watch the spiders in the windows
as they too, weave.
I daydream and make believe because it’s
One of the few things they cannot thieve.
I grieve because I have loved and somewhere
out there my community loves me, I must believe.
I breathe and wait for a release for all my
siblings taken because as surely as my heart beats -
this invisible hope is the closest thing to an
embrace that keeps me from losing faith.
This medicine, this salve that saves me from heartbreak.
A bravery they cannot replicate
carried in my blood that no amount of their hate
will ever, ever eradicate.
A song, a memory, a manifestation
sun, moon, stars, and wind every time that I blink,
in this windowless room, behind a full metal door, locked with key.
When they seem to have taken everything, still – I think –
and somehow it nourishes just to play make believe.
While I wait for me and my friends to be free.
🖤Marrriii

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