Republican Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) introduced a bill on July 18 that would label Antifa a domestic terror organization after police in Washington said an Antifa member committed a terror attack on an immigration facility and Antifa members battered a journalist in Portland in broad daylight without being arrested.
“Time and time again their actions have demonstrated that their only purpose is to inflict harm on those who oppose their views. The hate and violence they spread must be stopped, and I am proud to introduce this resolution with Senator Cassidy to properly identify what Antifa are: domestic terrorists.”
Cassidy called Antifa “violent masked bullies who ‘fight fascism' with actual fascism.”
The resolution states that members of Antifa, “because they believe that free speech is equivalent to violence, have used threats of violence in the pursuit of suppressing opposing political ideologies,” and notes that Antifa is known to violently disrupt groups who are demonstrating in public legally.
The Senate “calls for the groups and organizations across the country who act under the banner of Antifa to be designated as domestic terrorist organizations” and “unequivocally condemns the violent actions of Antifa groups as unacceptable acts for anyone in the United States,” the resolution states.
Cruz and Cassidy also called in the legislation for the federal government to “combat the spread of all forms of domestic terrorism, including White supremacist terrorism.”
Previous Efforts, Designations
There have been previous efforts to designate Antifa in certain ways, including from lawmakers like Cruz.After the 2017 violence, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin said that Antifa should be designated as a gang.
“I think we’re gonna have to think ‘big picture’ about what’s the strategy how we’re going to deal with these violent elements on the left as well,” Arreguin added. “We also need to hold accountable and encourage people not to associate with these extremists because it empowers them and gives them cover, we’re going to deal with these violent elements on the left as well.”
“We are investigating a number of what we would call anarchist-extremist investigations, where we would have properly predicated subjects of people who are motivated to commit violent criminal activity on kind of an Antifa ideology,” he said.
Wray said the FBI views Antifa as an ideology, not a single movement; the group has dozens of affiliates across the United States and some are more infamous than others, such as the Rose City group called out in Cruz and Cassidy’s resolution.
Authorities wrote that “anarchist extremists” were the primary instigators of violence at public rallies and known for attacking the police and conservative-leaning groups.
“It was in that period [as the Trump campaign emerged] that we really became aware of them,” one senior law enforcement official tracking domestic extremists in a state where clashes became common told Politico.
“These Antifa guys were showing up with weapons, shields and bike helmets and just beating the [expletive] out of people. … They’re using Molotov cocktails, they’re starting fires, they’re throwing bombs and smashing windows.”
