‘Not the Time and Place for a Political Speech’

A landmark Texas court case used leftist zines to brand demonstrators as an “Antifa” terror cell, alarming free speech advocates.

On the evening of July 4, the skies above Washington, DC, will light up with what organizers have described as the largest fireworks display in history. Eight hundred and fifty thousand fireworks shells will burst and crash to mark two hundred and fifty years since the Declaration of Independence was signed, beginning the experiment that is the United States.

On July 4, 2025, a very different fireworks display took place in Alvarado, Texas. Outside the Prairieland Detention Center, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, a group of leftist activists, some of whom had never met before, gathered for what was described as a “noise demonstration.” At about 10:30pm, they set off fireworks in a show of solidarity with detainees caught up in the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation drive. Several wore black clothing or hid their faces, and many communicated ahead of time via a Signal group named “4th of July party!” Some brought legally obtained firearms—one rifle owner said the guns would make police “back off”—but the event went badly wrong. Several demonstrators had already left by the time police arrived, shortly before 11pm, but one who remained was Benjamin “Champagne” Song. Song, who is trans and served in the Marine Corps, was armed with a rifle and discharged eleven shots. (She later said she thought police were about to open fire on another protester.) One of the bullets Song fired struck an officer in what some reports described as his shoulder and others his neck; he survived. The protesters also damaged property, slashing the tires of a government vehicle, breaking a security camera, and spray-painting “Fuck you pigs” on a guard booth.