Tabs/Indent alignment within a single Paragraph (using forced line breaks)

Whether the text comes in using line breaks or not, the goal is a properly and consistently formatted InDesign document. You don’t need the text to remain as line breaks. I would use search and replace to replace the line break before each of the circled letters with a return, then use hanging indents for the text.

@scotts55118436

If you have full control over XML - then you should completely rebuild it. 

Each line of text on your screenshot - should be a separate paragraph - then you can map XML tags to Para / Char Styles. 

As @James Gifford—NitroPress said - forced line breaks should be avoided at all cost. 

Or at least each line starting with icon should be a separate paragraph. 

Since you go out of your way to say it's essential, you must already know that soft returns are something to be avoided in professional layout, certainly not something to use as part of running paragraph formats.

If the colored icon/letters are just part of the paragraph text, I don't see why using left indent plus first line outdent would not work; I'd also use a tab (or a fixed space — ID has about six to choose from) after the icon and I'd force wrap using nonbreaking spaces rather than a soft return. I'm not even sure you need to force the break if you set up the indent and any right indent correctly, although a few entries might need touch up for best results.

ETA: Wait, after looking more closely and reading your description, you're saying this listing is one single paragraph all the way? In that case, there's simply no good way to manage this formatting. Fix the text by using Find/Replace, GREP or better XML output to create separate paragraphs for each entry. I don't think you'll ever get to a successful. manageable workflow in any other way. Very much GIGO, here.

A GREP search should be able to find the unusual icon font/character, find the space before, and replace it with a paragraph return.