The Dallas Express reported on this story extensively when it broke – uncovering Song’s far-left past. Now, in this interview from prison, Song has publicly confirmed his radical motives.
Benjamin Song, who allegedly helped ambush an ICE facility near Fort Worth, has publicly admitted his radical-left motives.
The long-time Antifa member allegedly bought the guns used to attack the ICE Prairieland Detention Facility in Alvarado on July 4, The Dallas Express previously reported. He fled the scene, triggering a week-long FBI manhunt. Song had a long history with the militant Antifa group Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Song explicitly confirmed what The Dallas Express had uncovered: He was a radical leftist who hated President Donald Trump.
“I used to write off the accusations that the Republican Party was racist because here we are, this Asian family who are Republicans… Then you saw the racist rhetoric escalate in 2016 with Trump,” Song said in an interview with The Post from inside the Johnson County Jail.
Song then “drifted toward libertarian politics and socialist economic policies” after classes at UT-Austin and Arlington, according to The Post.
Song would eventually take part in the violent ambush on the ICE facility, where an Alvarado police officer was shot in the neck.
“I commit to the things I believe in,” Song told The Post.
Casting Blame
Phillip Linder, who represents one of the other alleged assailants, claimed to The Post, “Ben Song surprised everyone and started shooting.”
Bradford Morris, a man who “identifies” as a woman named “Meagan,” also insisted to The Post that the co-conspirators did not intend violence. But Morris allegedly feels threatened in public: “I feel like there is a target on my back whenever I’m out in public.”
Another alleged assailant, Cameron Arnold, is a man who “identifies” as a woman named “Autumn Hill.”
Despite the defendants’ claims that they never intended violence, authorities seized violent anarchist propaganda calling for “insurrection” during the investigation, The Dallas Express previously reported.
An FBI bust in search of Song also turned up several guns, socialist propaganda, and members of the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club, as The Dallas Express exclusively reported.
When a SWAT team raided a home near downtown Dallas on July 5, they found numerous “transgender” women – part of a “group of activists who initially united around trans and queer identity issues,” according to The Post.
Morris had been living at the residence, where agents arrested Hill.
“It was weird enough that six or seven white, trans people moved into the neighborhood… and now the FBI is raiding their house,” a neighbor told The Post.
Turning Radical
Song was not always a radical socialist militant.
He says he grew up Republican – like his mother, according to The Post. Though, as Fox News reported, his father is a registered Democrat.
Song apparently worked for a website called “Conservative Camp” from 2010 to 2011, The Dallas Express previously reported. The website’s profile says it supported “a return to the tested, proven and reliable core conservative principles and values” of the past.
Song attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied from fall 2011 to fall 2012. He transferred to the University of Texas at Arlington, where he studied from 2013 to 2015. He graduated with a degree in business and managerial economics.
These schools led Song to begin “souring on free-market capitalism,” according to The Post. During these years, he also served as a martial arts instructor, teaching classes of up to 30 people.
Song was a member of the Marine Corps reserves from 2011 to 2016, and managed “up to 60 Marines” and “inventory worth over $1 million” during his time with the service.
He reached the rank of lance corporal, but quit in 2016 when superiors would not let him skip drills to complete college exams, according to The Post. He was given an “other than honorable” discharge.
In just four years, Song’s life took a drastic turn. According to KVUE, he was arrested for “aggravated assault” at a riot in Austin in 2020.
He eventually got in touch with an “online network of leftist activists” on apps like Signals and Discord, where he goes by the names “Bubbles” and “Champagne,” according to The Post.
Song became a member of the violent Antifa group Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club. Song faced a lawsuit for “battery, assault, stalking, and conspiracy” after a confrontation at a 2023 drag show, as The Dallas Express reported.
Song was also reportedly a member of the Socialist Rifle Association. A “transgender” suspect, accused of shooting and bombing a Tesla facility, was also part of this same group.
Song reportedly began training Antifa members in firearms and combat at his mother’s Taekwondo studio in Arlington, per The Post.
He was training Antifa members in 2022, according to a video uncovered by journalist Andy Ngo. It came from an account called “Anarcho-Airsoftist,” an apparent Antifa training ground in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.