News reports characterized the gathering at an Austin, Texas, intersection as a rapidly assembled, spontaneous anti-ICE protest after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent shot a Venezuelan man.
However, a Fox News Digital review found that the demonstration was promoted and coordinated by a broader network of socialist and communist organizations. Those groups include the Democratic Socialists of America, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which maintains close ties with nonprofits backed by Neville Roy Singham, an American-born technology billionaire who lives in Shanghai and is associated with communist causes.
Members of Congress are examining the Singham-linked network over allegations that it has helped cultivate an image of widespread disorder in the United States, including through anti-ICE demonstrations in Minneapolis and outside the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey. On Sunday night, BreakThrough News, a pro-communist outlet run by BreakThrough BT Media, a Singham-funded nonprofit, issued a “BREAKING NEWS” report from Texas headlined, “Austin erupts in protest…”
The shooting took place around 12:56 p.m. Central time Sunday near Anderson Square and Research Boulevard in Austin. Authorities said an ICE officer fired at Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan national, during a traffic stop.
Pérez was taken to a hospital in serious but stable condition and was later placed in federal custody. Local officials said Austin police did not participate in the shooting. Federal authorities, assisted by the FBI, are investigating the incident.
Roughly four hours later, socialist and communist activists had gathered near the site. Demonstrators carried Mexican flags, circulated accounts of the incident through national and Texas-based social media networks, and livestreamed images of the growing crowd and clashes with Austin police.
Coverage of the demonstration largely emphasized its anti-ICE message, while offering little detail about the political organizations and online networks that helped publicize and coordinate the event.
Local outlet KVUE reported that the “North Austin ICE shooting draws large protest as tensions escalate,” presenting the gathering as a spontaneous escalation. According to the report, “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.”
The organization behind the Austin protest is significant because it suggests the event was not solely an impromptu reaction by nearby residents. Instead, it followed a pattern seen at demonstrations in Minnesota and New Jersey, where established activist networks quickly helped transform breaking news into organized political action.
The shooting served as the immediate catalyst, but the response was amplified by groups with openly revolutionary socialist or communist beliefs, established media and propaganda operations, and longstanding connections to international movements supportive of the communist governments of Cuba and Venezuela.
Each organization already had activist contacts and digital audiences in place, allowing it to publicize the gathering and encourage supporters to attend within a matter of hours.
The Austin demonstration also showed how quickly an incident involving law enforcement can be reframed as a larger political campaign. Within hours, several organizations circulated similar accounts, directed followers to the same location and described the shooting with terms including “ICE terror,” “police violence” and references to an alleged pattern of killings.
At approximately 4:19 p.m. local time, the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s national X account, @PSLNational, posted a forceful announcement: “BREAKING. MAN SHOT BY ICE AGENTS IN AUSTIN.” The account urged residents to oppose the agency with the slogan, “ICE OUT OF AUSTIN NOW!”
Around the same time, the organization’s Austin chapter uploaded the “BREAKING” graphic to Instagram, coordinating with the national group and chapters in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas-Fort Worth and Waco. By early Monday evening—about a day after publication—the post had received 5,402 likes, 2,016 reposts and 2,391 shares or sends.
At about 4:30 p.m. Sunday, the Austin chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America shared an “Emergency Demonstration/Vigil” notice. The graphic directed supporters to meet at 8121 Research Boulevard between 5 and 8 p.m. for what it called 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 announcement stated.
The organization later reposted the notice with a revised meeting location and said the demonstration would continue until 7 p.m.
The Freedom Road Socialist Organization and its Austin branch also circulated posts about the shooting shortly afterward. The openly Marxist-Leninist group has sent delegations in support of the communist governments of Cuba and Venezuela.
One of its graphics declared, “ICE SHOOTS AN UNARMED CIVILIAN,” while another called the incident part of a wider pattern of “ICE violence and killings.” Within 24 hours, the post had accumulated 620 likes, 214 reposts and 156 shares or sends.
The Freedom Road Socialist Organization has openly stated that it seeks 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 US sanctions against Cuba.
Videos posted by the group showed demonstrators chanting, holding signs, blocking the roadway near the shooting scene and lighting fireworks.
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.
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…!!!”
