Demonstrators in the US will spend decades in prison after being sentenced for taking part in a protest outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centre last July.

Journalist Mehdi Hasan called the sentences “insane” and noted the hypocrisy and authoritarian nature of the punishments. A total of eight people were sentenced yesterday in Fort Worth, Texas, while three more defendants await their fate.

• Savanna Batten, Zachary Evetts, Autumn Hill, Meagan Morris and Elizabeth Soto each got 50 years.

• Maricela Rueda got 70 years.

• Daniel Rolando Sanchez Estrada got 30 years for hiding political literature, even though he wasn’t at the protest.

• Benjamin Hanil Song got 100 years.

The most severely punished defendant, Hanil Song, received 100 years. He attempted to protect a fleeing protester from what they described as an imminent threat of being shot by law enforcement.

In a statement, Song wrote that he fired at an officer after watching them point a gun at the back of a fleeing, unarmed protester.

Song said he was “terrified” and used the minimum force possible to stop what looked like another imminent killing. He said he never intended to hurt anyone and was “grateful” no one died.

He also pointed to history, citing a speech by white supremacist, Senator “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman, from 1895, who bragged about taking power “by fraud and violence”. A pattern, Song said, is repeating itself today as the US government uses injustice to silence dissent and make an example out of ordinary people.