Judicial Watch Sues Dept of Homeland Security for Images of Attack on Texas ICE Detention Facility

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for video footage and photographs of the attack on the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado, TX, on July 4, 2025 (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No.1:26-cv-0331)).

Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a component of the Department of Homeland Security, failed to respond to a July 10, 2025, FOIA request for:

1. All video surveillance footage depicting the attack on the Prairieland ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas on or about July 4, 2025

2. All body worn camera footage depicting the attack on the Prairieland ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas on or about July 4, 2025

3. All photographs depicting the attack on the Prairieland ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas on or about July 4, 2025

Immigration and Customs Enforcement described the incident at its Prairieland detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, as a “planned ambush.” A group of suspects began shooting fireworks at the facility while others damaged vehicles and sprayed graffiti, apparently to lure officers outside. When officers responded, one was shot in the neck. Attackers fired 20 to 30 rounds at unarmed detention officers. Authorities say the suspects intended to kill corrections officers.

A federal grand jury indicted nine individuals identified by prosecutors as members of Antifa, and charged seven additional people “with offenses including rioting, using weapons and explosives, providing material support to terrorists, obstruction, and attempted murder of an Alvarado police officer and unarmed correctional officers at the Prairieland Detention Center.”

President Trump in September 2025 issued an executive order designating Antifa as “a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law.” He designated it a “domestic terrorist organization,” and directed federal law enforcement to “utilize all applicable authorities to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all [Antifa-aligned] illegal operations.”

“The ambush on the Prairieland ICE facility was a predictable outcome of years of anti-ICE and anti-border-security rhetoric,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The media, and the radical Left repeatedly label ICE agents as ‘racists’ and ‘kidnappers’ and are creating a climate conducive to domestic terrorist attacks.”

In December 2025, Judicial Watch sued the Department of Homeland Security for records on migrants who entered the United States from 2020–2025, using arrest warrants and removal orders as proof of identification.

In November 2025, Judicial Watch sued Evanston, IL, Mayor Daniel Biss for records related to obstruction of federal immigration enforcement, as well as Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs for records regarding her office reportedly ordering state police and the National Guard to withhold cooperation from federal immigration enforcement authorities.

Judicial Watch in December 2025 pointed out that in just two states with “sanctuary” policies, nearly 9,000 criminal aliens were released from jails and prisons since January 20, defying Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainers to deport them.

In October 2025, Judicial Watch reported on a Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF), established by President Trump on the day of his inauguration to tackle a pandemic of transnational organized crime created by the Biden administration’s “disgraceful” open border policies, had made thousands of arrests and seized over 1,000 illegal firearms, 91 tons of drugs and $3 million in currency.

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