Jane Collins is a pleasant, grey-haired senior from Arlington, Texas. She has a raging sense of justice.
On February 19, she helped arrange a fundraiser for the Prairieland 9 at her church. The nine will soon be facing exceptionally long sentences in the federal court in Fort Worth. They are accused of just about everything from graffiti to terrorism and attempted murder.
Collins says that the federal judge is a MAGA Republican. A possible tip on his attitude came on the first day of jury selection when he declared a mistrial because an attorney wore a shirt with a picture of Martin Luther King Jr under her jacket. “His goal is to make sure that he has a jury that will convict,” says Collins.
Discussion about the case, about the actual facts, about the role of ICE, and about the far-reaching significance of the charges filed by both federal and Texas authorities, is bubbling its way through conversations among North Texas activists.
The official version, echoing over and over again in commercial news coverage, is that a small group of activists and pranksters shot off firecrackers on July 4th, 2025, outside the ICE detention center in the tiny town of Alvarado, population 8,000, just south of Fort Worth.
Reporters claim that they painted graffiti on an automobile and slashed tires. Then, the reporters say, somebody grabbed a rifle and shot a superficial wound into a deputy sheriff’s neck.
Fifteen people, some of whom were not in Alvarado that night, were rounded up. At least five are taking plea deals and face up to 15 years in prison at their sentencing in early March.
It is difficult to get the accused’s side of the story, because they have been held behind bars for the entire six months with bail set in the millions of dollars. In some of the local discussions, activists believe that the government(s) have sinister purposes: they want to provide a test case to validate President Trump’s outrageous declaration that anybody who opposes fascism is a terrorist.
Jane Collins has been following the case and has talked to family members. “This is a political trial,” she says. Further, “I don’t believe anybody shot anybody!” If a Deputy Sheriff was really injured, Collins says, it was likely caused by fireworks similar to bottle rockets. She doesn’t believe the government’s charges or public statements. “Nobody can tell what is really true in these Trump days,” Collins says.
Collins is old enough to remember when peaceful civil rights leaders were shot down by police. “You know what they did to the Black Panthers,” she recalls. A longtime activist, Collins does not believe that guns have any place in today’s movement. “You cannot win with rifles,” she says. “If somebody actually did take a gun and shoot it, I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t a provocateur,” Collins concludes.
She is positively impressed with the kinds of people who are raising funds and providing support for those in jail. The overall group is named “DFW Support Committee.” One of them came and spoke at her church service. At the fundraiser, at least 60 showed up. Some of them identified themselves as “Panther City Anarchists,” a mutual aid organization. “Panther City” is a humorous name sometimes used for Fort Worth.
Support rallies have already begun outside the Fort Worth trial building. As an exceptionally small courtroom was chosen, overflow crowds will be seated in nearby Dallas.
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