If you or your organization would like to sign this open letter, please get in touch with us at: freedes [at] riseup [dot] net

ORGANIZATIONS DEMAND THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF COMMUNITY MEMBER AND GREEN CARD HOLDER DANIEL SANCHEZ

Since July 6, 2025, the federal government has unjustly detained beloved community member, artist, and green card holder Daniel “Des” Sanchez Estrada. He is in custody in North Texas on charges related to simply carrying printed materials the Trump administration disagrees with. This is a flagrant violation of his First Amendment rights. Additionally, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) has placed a hold on Des and doxxed him. If the federal government is allowed to behave this way based on literature that it deems subversive, then all of our communities and movements are under threat.

We, the undersigned organizations and groups, call on the federal government to drop all charges against Des and lift his hold. We also call on all organizations and groups wanting to defend a free society to join us in signing this solidarity statement. A threat to Des is a threat to us all.

Background

On July 4, 2025, around a dozen people gathered outside the ICE Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, for a noise demonstration in solidarity with the immigrants and ICE detainees inside. The event was advertised in large group chats, and people showed up ready to make noise and stand up against Trump’s attacks against our communities. At some point, an altercation allegedly occurred where an officer sustained a minor injury. Ten people were arrested, and state and federal police then charged them with extreme allegations of terrorism and attempted murder. Since then, another eight people have been arrested in connection with this case. The police have terrorized friends and family members of those arrested at the protest and after, serving no-knock warrants, conducting house raids, and engaging in widespread surveillance.

Des was not at the Prairieland demonstration. Instead, on July 6, after receiving a phone call from his wife in jail (one of the initial ten), Des was followed by Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) agents in Denton, Texas. They pretextually pulled him over due to a minor traffic violation and quickly arrested him at gunpoint. He was later charged with alleged “evidence tampering and obstruction of justice” based on a box of political pamphlets that he purportedly moved in his truck from his home (not his wife’s) to another house. This type of literature can be found in any activist house or independent bookstore. Des was briefly held at the Johnson County Jail, and then transferred to a federal prison, FMC Fort Worth, where he has been held ever since.

On October 15, the U.S. Attorney General’s Office indicted Des for allegedly transporting “a box that contained numerous Antifa materials.” Then, on November 13, in a superseding indictment, Des was named as a codefendant with eight others for purportedly being part of a (fictitious) “North Texas Antifa Cell.” He again was accused of supposedly transporting “Antifa materials,” but now in a purported “conspiracy to conceal documents” to “impair their use [in] criminal proceedings.”

To underscore: Des was not at the Prairieland rally. He was arrested two days later after getting a call for familial support from his incarcerated wife, a Prairieland defendant. As pictured in the case’s criminal complaints, the materials at issue are widely available zines. Des’s indictment should shock us. We also clearly understand the prosecution of Des to be tied to and threatening his immigration status, and part of broader attacks on our immigrant, migrant, and refugee friends and family.

These charges set a dangerous precedent for the criminalization of dissent against the Trump administration. If anyone can be arrested, imprisoned, and potentially deported for having materials that express opposition to governmental policies or fascism, we are on the precipice of a much larger wave of arrests targeting those who oppose Trump.

We thus demand his immediate release, and that all charges and threats of removal be dropped.
 
 Signed,

If you or your organization would like to sign this open letter, please get in touch with us at: freedes [at] riseup [dot] net