The suspect wanted in a recent ambush on an ICE facility is a long-time Antifa member, connected to several left-wing militant groups in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. 

The FBI is searching for Benjamin Song, a 32-year-old from Dallas, who allegedly took part in an “organized attack” against an ICE detention center in Alvarado during Independence Day. 

Song was a member of the militant Antifa group Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club, and he had a history of left-wing radicalism.

He allegedly bought four guns used in the ICE facility ambush on July 4, which wounded an Alvarado police officer, as The Dallas Express reported. He reportedly hid in the woods near the scene for a day after the shooting, then fled.

The FBI is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to Song’s arrest, and Gov. Greg Abbott announced July 10 that his office is offering a $10,000 reward.

“The targeted attacks against our federal law enforcement officers is a crime and must end,” Abbott said in the release. “Criminals such as Benjamin Hanil Song will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Training Militants

Song’s radical activity goes much deeper than this incident.

He was a member of the violent Antifa group Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club, known for intimidating people outside drag shows. Song faced a lawsuit for “battery, assault, stalking, and conspiracy” after a confrontation at a 2023 drag show, as The Dallas Express reported. During the event, Fort Worth Police busted violent members of Song’s group.

Song was also reportedly a member of the Socialist Rifle Association. A transgender suspect, accused of shooting and bombing a Tesla dealership, was part of the same organization.

He trained Antifa in firearms and combat in 2022, according to a video uncovered by journalist Andy Ngo. 

The account that posted the video – “Anarcho-Airsoftist” – is an apparent Antifa training ground in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Notably, according to his alleged LinkedIn account, Song was formerly a martial arts instructor.

The account showed participants learning to fight.

Before he trained Antifa militants, Song was arrested for “aggravated assault” at a riot in Austin during 2020, according to KVUE.

Benjamin Song. Credit: Austin Police Department

Though Song was not always a left-wing militant.

He apparently worked for a website called “Conservative Camp” from 2010 to 2011, according to his alleged LinkedIn account. The website’s profile says it supported “a return to the tested, proven and reliable core conservative principles and values” of the past.

Song then attended the University of Texas at Austin, where, according to university records, he studied from fall 2011 to fall 2012. 

He transferred to the University of Texas at Arlington, where he studied from 2013 to 2015, according to his alleged LinkedIn profile. He graduated with a degree in business and managerial economics. 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, when he was dismissed on an “other than honorable discharge,” as The Dallas Express reported. According to LinkedIn, he “managed up to 60 Marines” and “managed, organized, and accounted for inventory worth over $1 million” during his time with the service. His profile stops after this.

But in four short years, Song apparently went from serving his country to rioting in Austin, then training Antifa members, then helping ambush an ICE facility.

One of Song’s fellow suspects in the ICE ambush had an anarchist manifesto called Organizing for Attack! Insurrectionary Anarchy, as The Dallas Express reported. 

These materials called for loosely connected anarchist cells to launch an insurgency against the government. As a strategy, the manifesto suggested storing up anger in a mental “compartment” over time, to unleash it against authority one day.

“I hear the door unlatching from inside, and this new terrible question approaches me: How shall I know when it’s time for insurrection?” the manifesto reads. “Do we carry on waiting and waiting until things get critical? Is it then the time for insurrection? Or will it be too late…?”