Last week, a federal court in Texas decided that going to a protest can cost you the rest of your life.
Maricela Rueda got 70 years. Seven others got decades. They gathered outside an ICE jail in Alvarado to protest the people locked inside, and the government charged them as a terrorist cell.
Look at what counted as evidence:
- Rueda wore black.
- She texted on an encrypted app.
- Someone handed out homemade zines.
The everyday things we all do at a protest became proof of terrorism, and a judge built a life sentence on top of them.
This is the first case like this, and it sets the rule for all future ones. If your clothes and your group chat can be called terrorism, any protest can be. MAGA wants the cost of speaking up so high that you stay home.
–Women’s March
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