Statement on 30-Year Sentence for Transporting Pamphlets
On Tuesday, a federal judge in Texas sentenced teacher and poet Daniel Sanchez Estrada to 30 years in prison for transporting a box of antifascist zines—political pamphlets that are protected speech under the First Amendment.
Sanchez Estrada was one of nine people convicted in March in connection with a protest outside the Prairieland ICE detention center in Alvarado, TX that escalated into a confrontation with law enforcement. Although he was not even present at the protest, Sanchez Estrada’s wife was, and his conviction rests on the allegation that he moved documents to conceal them on her behalf. Court records show that he picked up a box of artwork, pamphlets and poetry—including four zines with antifascist messaging—from his parents’ home and dropped it at another apartment. Under the First Amendment, which the founders drafted with pro-Revolutionary pamphlets in mind, Sanchez Estrada was free to possess such literature.
“Everyone should be alarmed that a man who carried a box of political pamphlets out of his parents’ house, who harmed no one, is going to prison for thirty years,” said Jane Fonda, co-founder of the relaunched Committee for the First Amendment. “Daniel Sanchez Estrada’s antifascist literature is precisely what the First Amendment was conceived to protect, and his conviction and sentencing is an assault on its most basic guarantee.”
The Prairieland sentences were all decades long, influenced by a highly controversial presidential memorandum (NSPM-7) and an Executive Order that designated so-called “antifa” a domestic terrorist organization, both issued last September. NSPM-7 directs federal agencies to target specific groups the administration is opposed to. This includes those who express “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity” and “extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.” There is no organization called “antifa”, a term the regime uses to describe a broad swathe of anti-fascist beliefs and activities, and no legal authority to designate any domestic group as terrorists.
This is the latest glaring example of this administration seeking to suppress dissent: whether they subpoena and raid journalists, jawbone and silence late night hosts, or indict anti-ICE protestors, this is a pattern, and it is widening. This extreme, unprecedented sentencing under NSPM-7 should disturb every American who opposes government overreach and cherishes First Amendment freedoms. We must speak out about this unprecedented and unconstitutional punishment before more people are imprisoned for their protected political speech. The Committee for the First Amendment stands with everyone this administration seeks to punish for protected speech.
