On July 4, 2025, a protest outside of the Prairieland Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility near Dallas, Texas, escalated as some protestors broke off and committed acts of vandalism. The protest had started hours earlier as a noise demonstration where activists set off fireworks and used other noise makers to alert detainees in the facility that they supported them.
But when law enforcement arrived to respond to the vandals, a police officer was shot nonfatally in the neck area. Authorities later charged protester Champagne Song for the shooting.
Meagan Morris, who says she was a half-mile away playing Pokémon in her car when she heard the gunshots, was soon after stopped by police and taken into custody.
Three months later, the Trump administration accused her and eight other defendants—three of whom, including Morris, are trans—of being “Antifa terrorists” and “Antifa Cell operatives.”
Morris and her codefendants were eventually sentenced in part for providing material support for terrorists in what the Department of Justice called “the first sentencing of defendants affiliated with Antifa,” a name which refers to a decentralized movement based on militant opposition to fascism.
The sentencing comes after Trump signed an executive order declaring antifa, short for anti-fascism, as a terrorist organization, despite no such unified organization existing. And in May, the administration’s counterterrorism strategy listed “radically pro-transgender” groups as a national security threat.
Morris was sentenced to 50 years in prison, which has caused legal experts concern. They noted that her sentence is unusually harsh, more than double the longest sentence for a Jan. 6 rioter, and that it could set a precedent for strict crackdowns on freedom of speech and assembly.
After speaking to Morris’ codefendant and girlfriend, Autumn Hill, we wanted to hear from Morris. In this episode of “UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton,” she’s calling in from Johnson County Jail in Texas, where she is currently serving her sentence.
“UNCLOSETED with Spencer Macnaughton” is a new podcast by Uncloseted Media, an investigative LGBTQ-focused nonprofit news publication. Follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. YouTube // Spotify // Apple
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Host: Spencer Macnaughton
Editor: Laury Peyssonnerie
Reporting: Hope Pisoni and Sophie Holland
Social producer/Design: Sophie Holland
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