If your organization would like to sign this open letter, please get in touch with us at: freedes [at] riseup [dot] net
OVER 140 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,
- Abolitionist Law Center
- Abra Collective
- Aetna Street Solidarity
- AK Press
- Alyssa Rodriguez Center for Gender Justice
- Amplifier Films
- Anarchist Black Cross Federation of Orange County
- Animal Defense League – Chicago
- Animal Rights Collective of Chicago
- Antidote Zine
- Appalachian Rekindling Project
- Atlanta Antifascists
- Atlanta IWOC
- Austin ABC
- Austin Mutual Aid
- Baltimore Zinefest
- Behind The Zines Distro
- Beis Lakish
- Bimbos Against Capitalism
- Bimbos for Liberation
- Black Leadership Action Coalition of Kentucky (BLACK)
- BLACK Action Fund
- Black Alliance for Peace
- Black Lantern Bookstore
- Black Rose Society
- Blackbird Infoshop
- Blue Ridge ABC
- Blue Sky Institute
- Boston Food Not Bombs
- Bread & Roses Press
- Bread and Roses Law
- Breadbox Project
- Bristol Action Group
- Brittlebush Distro
- Amnesty International Chapter – Brown University
- Burn Barrel Press
- Caldwell Hays Examiner
- Camas Books and Infoshop
- CAW Collective
- Chicago ABC
- Cienfuegos Distro
- City Deer Distro
- Civic Media Center
- Community Centered and Squared
- Community Safety Team of Kavod Boston
- Coulee Chapter Democratic Socialists of America
- COVID Conscious Bloc of San Antonio
- Cradle Community
- Dare to Struggle ATX
- Denton Left
- Detritus Books
- Direct Action Everywhere
- Direct Action Everywhere, Illinois Chapter
- Doctors for Camp Closure
- DSA North Texas
- Eastern Kentucky Community Land Trust
- Eastside Cafe
- Emerge Caucus of the Democratic Socialists of America
- Eternia Press
- Fight for the Future
- Fight Toxic Prisons
- Firestorm Books
- Florida Access Network
- Florida Prisoner Solidarity
- Fort Bend Coalition for Justice
- Free Her Vermont
- Free Palestine Tarrant
- Freedom of the Press Foundation
- Frontline Medics
- Gainesville Books to Prisoners
- Greater Chicago Industrial Workers of the World
- Green Party – Utah
- Green Party Elders
- Green Party of Hawai’i
- Grid Zine Fest
- Houston Leads
- Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC)
- Inga Bookshop
- Jewish Voice for Peace Madison
- Jewish Voice for Peace Pittsburgh
- Juntos – PA
- Jura Books
- Kentucky Abolitionists
- Kentucky Tenants
- Kentucky Student Environmental Coalition
- LaUnidad11 Houston
- Let’s Get Free: The Women & Trans Prisoner Defense Committee
- Levee Collective
- Los Angeles Food Not Bombs
- Maine Green Independent Party
- Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity (MAMAS)
- Mano Amiga
- Matir Asurim: Jewish Care Network for Incarcerated People
- Mayday Space
- Michigan Solidarity Bail Fund
- Minyon Rōsh Pinoh מנין ראש פּנה
- Mootual Aid
- Movements for the Soul
- Muchacha Fanzine
- National Lawyers Guild
- Neighbors Immigration Clinic
- Never Again Action – National
- Never Again Action Wisconsin
- Night Heron Grassroots Activist Center
- No Detention Centers in Michigan
- No New Prisons IL
- NYC ABC
- On Our Own Authority! Publishing
- Our House – NYC
- Our Streets Collective
- Palestine Solidarity TX
- Panther City Anarchist Organization
- Paper Hearts Zine Fest
- pink peacock café די ראָזעווע פּאַווע
- Pipsqueak Collective
- Pittsburgh Jewish Zine Fest
- PM Press
- Political Dissonance
- Power Up People Inc.
- Pride at the Pier
- Prison Library Support Network
- Queers Against Kremlin
- R.V. T.V.
- Ratzon: Center for Healing & Resistance
- Root Causes Collective
- San Antonio Stands
- San Antonio Zine Fest
- San Fernando Valley Homeless Union
- SAFE Boulder
- Screwston Anti-Fascist Committee
- Shared Wellness
- Sheer Spite Press
- Signal Fire Radical Jewish Artist Cooperative
- Siskyou Abolition Project
- SCAO
- Steel City Food Not Bombs
- Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness
- Survival Bloc
- Tallahassee Food Not Bombs
- Tampa Zine Fest
- Texas Abolitionists
- Texas Civil Rights Project
- Texas Harm Reduction Alliance
- Texas Jail Project
- Third Street Staff Union
- Trans Resistance Action Committee (TRAC)
- Transformations CDC
- Triangle ABC
- Ukranian Solidarity Front
- Vecinos Unidos
- Warzone Distro
- Willamette Valley Abolition Project
- Willo Press
- With Love, San Marcos
- Wooden Shoe Collective
- Woori Juntos
- Worcester Havurah
- Xinachtli Freedom Campaign
- Yanawana Herbolarios
If your organization would like to sign this open letter, please get in touch with us at: freedes [at] riseup [dot] net