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Media accounts reported that protesters “quickly organized” a spontaneous anti-ICE protest at an Austin, Texas, intersection following the shooting of a Venezuelan man by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
But a Fox News Digital investigation shows that the protests are being promoted and organized by a coordinated network of far-left socialist and communist groups, including the Democratic Socialists of America, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which works closely with nonprofits funded by Neville Roy Singham, a communist American-born tech tycoon living in Shanghai.
Congressional lawmakers are investigating the Singham network for allegedly fomenting the image of “chaos” in the U.S., including anti-ICE protests from Minneapolis to the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, N.J. Sure enough, Sunday evening, BreakThrough News, a pro-communist media platform operated by BreakThrough BT Media, a nonprofit funded by Singham, published a “BREAKING NEWS” report from Texas with the headline: “Austin erupts in protest…”
Protesters confront police officers (not picured) after city officials said that a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent shot a person earlier in the day in Austin, Texas, U.S. September 20, 2026. (Nuri Vallbona/Reuters)
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The shooting occurred Sunday afternoon at about 12:56 p.m. Central Time near Anderson Square and Research Boulevard in Austin. Authorities said an ICE officer shot Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan national, during a traffic stop. Perez was hospitalized in serious but stable condition and later placed in federal custody. Local officials said Austin police weren’t involved in the shooting, which is being investigated by federal authorities with assistance from the FBI.
About four hours after the shooting, local socialist and communist activists were already at the scene, waving flags of Mexico, pushing the incident through their national and Texas social-media networks and broadcasting footage of the growing crowd and confrontations with Austin police.
The headlines and descriptions of the demonstration have focused on the protest’s anti-ICE message without identifying the political or ideological infrastructure that helped organize and promote the event. Local media headlines included KVUE reporting that “North Austin ICE shooting draws large protest as tensions escalate,” describing a spontaneous outburst: “What began with a handful of people gathered across the street from the scene grew into a much larger crowd over the course of several hours.”
But the details of the Austin protest are important because they reveal that the demonstrations represent more than an unplanned gathering of residents responding to a breaking-news event, much like the protests in Minnesota and New Jersey and Minnesota.
A person throws a rock at law enforcement during a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on Sept. 20, 2026 in Austin, Texas. A federal ICE officer shot and wounded a person earlier this afternoon in North Austin. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
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The shooting provided the immediate trigger, but the mobilization was amplified by organizations with explicit revolutionary socialist and communist ideologies, established propaganda outlets and long-standing ties to international movements aligned with the communist governments of Cuba and Venezuela. They each have pre-existing activist networks and online audiences that organized and promoted the protests.
The event also illustrates how rapidly established activist networks can convert a law-enforcement incident into a larger political action. Within hours, the groups distributed nearly identical claims, promoted the same location and used dramatic language describing the shooting as “ICE terror,” “police violence” and part of a pattern of killings.
At about 4:19 p.m. local time, the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s national account, @PSLNational, posted an explosive message on X, announcing the shooting and shouting in capital letters, “BREAKING. MAN SHOT BY ICE AGENTS IN AUSTIN. It called on residents to protest ICE, declaring, “ICE OUT OF AUSTIN NOW!”
Right about then, the group’s Austin chapter shared the dramatic “BREAKING” graphic on Instagram, collaborating with its national headquarters and four Texas chapters in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth and Waco. By early Monday evening, about 24 hours later, the post had 5,402 likes, 2,016 reposts and 2,391 shares/sends.
People protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on Sept. 20, 2026, in Austin, Texas. A federal ICE officer shot and wounded a person earlier in the day in North Austin. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
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About an hour later on Sunday, at about 5:30 p.m. local time, the Austin chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America posted a graphic labeled “Emergency Demonstration/Vigil” calling on supporters to gather at 8121 Research Boulevard from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday for a “spontaneous” protest.
“Join us at 8121 Research Blvd from 5-8 p.m. for a spontaneous protest and vigil against yet another instance of ICE and police violence,” the post said.
The group later reposted the notice with an updated location and said the demonstration would continue until 7 p.m.
Right about then, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, an openly Marxist-Leninist group that has sent delegations to support communist regimes in Cuba and Venezuela, and its Austin chapter published its own hyperbolic material about the shooting. One graphic said, “ICE SHOOTS AN UNARMED CIVILIAN,” while another described the incident as part of a broader pattern of “ICE violence and killings.” Within 24 hours, the post garnered 620 likes, 214 reposts and 156 shares/sends.
The Freedom Road Socialist Organization openly says it is working to build “a new, revolutionary, communist party.” In its own program, the group says it wants to replace capitalism through a socialist revolution. The group’s program describes the organization as part of the communist movement. In July, the group said it “salutes the Communist Party of China” on the 105th anniversary of its founding.
For years, it’s also supported the Communist Party of Cuba, declaring, “Stand with socialist Cuba,” as it praised the Cuban Revolution and called for an end to U.S. sanctions against Cuba.
Videos posted by the group showed demonstrators chanting, holding signs, blocking the roadway near the shooting scene and lighting fireworks.
Fireworks shooting off at anti-ICE protest in North Austin, Texas. (Credit: Alec Nolan/Fox 7 Austin)
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The Party for Socialism and Liberation official manifesto describes itself as a “revolutionary socialist” movement that “will open the way to communism and the end of class society.” The program describes the police and state institutions as tools of capitalist rule and calls for a workers’ government to replace the current system.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation functions as a key boots-on-the-ground mobilizer within the broader activist ecosystem, working alongside Singham-funded organizations such as the People’s Forum, BreakThrough News, CodePink and the ANSWER Coalition on protests, media campaigns and international solidarity efforts.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation also overlaps with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization through shared “anti-imperialist” pro-communist coalitions, while the Democratic Socialists of America often provides a broader layer of street-level organizing and political amplification.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation has participated in international “solidarity” efforts involving Cuba and Venezuela, along with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, according to a communist publication, Fight Back! News. A self-described communist co-founder of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Brian Becker, has said the delegation traveled “as comrades in solidarity.”
The facts surrounding the shooting remain under investigation. Austin officials have called for transparency and an independent review, while federal authorities have said the ICE agent’s use of force is being investigated. But the protest organizers’ social media posts leave little ambiguity about the political and ideological objective of the protest.
People protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers on Sept. 20, 2026, in Austin, Texas. A federal ICE officer shot and wounded a person earlier in North Austin. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
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At 5:44 p.m., @PSLNational posted a video from the scene, announcing, “LIVE: A crowd has gathered…”, and moving from initial messaging to real-time amplification of the street protest. Its national and Austin accounts shared the video on Instagram synchronized with the band Rage Against the Machine’s song, “We’ve Got to Take the Power Back.” It added the message, “Austinites flooding the streets where man shot by ICE: ‘ICE out of our neighborhoods,’” giving the illusion of a spontaneous “flooding” of “the streets.”
That evening, at 8:27 p.m., @PSLNational published an expanded statement on X, headlined “Justice for Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez,” demanding the detainee’s release and the agent’s arrest and telling supporters to “follow the example of Minneapolis earlier this year until ICE terror is defeated!”
An identical “Justice for Wilber…” collaborative post on Instagram spread through the Party for Socialism and Liberation’sTexas and national accounts. By early Monday evening, it had 10,600 likes, 3,616 reposts and 2,343 shares/sends.
By about 5 p.m. on Monday, a new call to action moved activists to Pearsal Detention Center, where local groups claimed ICE agents allegedly held the detainee in custody: “WE NEED YOU BOOTS ON THE GROUND…!!!”
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