EXCLUSIVE: Van Duyne wants to treat Antifa like the mafia amid crackdown

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(The Center Square) – A U.S. representative from Texas said it's time for Congress to get serious about violent groups such as Antifa.

"We've only seen it get worse, and until we start treating them as the terrorists that they are, we're not taking it seriously," U.S. Rep. Beth Van Duyne told The Center Square on Wednesday. 

In July, Van Duyne introduced a bill that she said would give law enforcement new tools to go after such groups by following the money. Her measure, the Stop Financial Underwriting of Nefarious Demonstrations and Extremist Riots (Stop FUNDERs) Act, would add rioting, funding and organizing violent and coordinated activities to be included as a crime under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

The RICO Act of 1970 was designed to eradicate organized crime. Van Duyne said it's time to use the same law to go after other violent groups, such as Antifa.

Van Duyne pointed specifically to the ambush at the ICE Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, on July 4. U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Susan Larson called it "a planned ambush with the intent to kill ICE corrections officers."

Larson said that nearly a dozen people dressed in black, wearing tactical gear and body armor, first shot fireworks at the ICE facility. After officers reported the attack to 911, two unarmed corrections officers went to speak to the group. Once the first Alvarado Police officer arrived, a gunman hiding in the woods shot him in the neck; another assailant across the street shot 20 to 30 rounds at the unarmed corrections officers.

After a weeklong search, authorities arrested Benjamin Hanil Song in mid-July and charged him in the shooting.

Van Duyne said Song had long been involved in violent groups and was arrested in 2020 for aggravated assault. Van Duyne said police did their job by arresting him back in 2020, but he was never prosecuted.

"They lured the officers out in the open," she said of the Prairieland ambush. "They opened fire with AR-style rifles. This is obviously a very well planned and very well outfitted attack." 

Van Duyne said she was no more concerned about Antifa's First Amendment rights than with the mafia's First Amendment rights.

"These are organized malicious-style riots, violent riots, attacks on our law enforcement and on our government," she told The Center Square. "I don't think that is protected under the First Amendment."

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, filed a companion bill in the U.S. Senate.

Van Duyne also filed another bill in June that would prohibit anyone convicted of riot-related crimes from getting assistance from the Small Business Administration.

Van Duyne's effort comes as the White House also looks to crack down on violent riots. President Donald Trump recently designated Antifa a domestic terror organization, a move that drew criticism from some.

On Wednesday, the White House hosted a roundtable to discuss Antifa.

"We are going to be looking very strongly at the people who fund these organizations," Trump said Wednesday during the discussion.

Riots against ICE officers in the last few months also appear to be coordinated and financed by several groups, prompting a Department of Justice investigation. 

During the first six months of the Trump administration, attacks against ICE officers increased by 830% from California to Nebraska to New York, The Center Square previously reported.