The nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organization, LULACis one of several entities in Texas targeted in a voter fraud raid led by state Attorney General Ken Paxton, CBS News has learned.
In a letter first obtained by CBS News, LULAC asked the Justice Department to investigate Paxton’s office for violating the Voting Rights Act. The organization accused Paxton’s office of conducting an illegal search based on voter fraud.
“These actions echo the long history of voter suppression and intimidation targeting Black and Latino communities, especially in states like Texas, where demographic changes are increasingly changing the political landscape,” LULAC CEO Juan Proaño and the group’s national president mentioned, Roman. Palomares, said in the letter.
Last week, Paxton’s office announced in a press release that it launched an undercover operation and investigation into reports that several organizations in Texas illegally registered non-citizens to vote, in violation of state and federal law.
LULAC officials told CBS News that several Texas members of the group were targeted and their laptops and cellphones were seized by Texas authorities who executed search warrants. Some of the attacks focused on Latino activists across the country.
“Attorney General Paxton used his position of authority to harass and intimidate Latino non-profit organizations like LULAC, Latino Leaders and LULAC members,” Juan Proaño, CEO of LULAC told CBS News, calling the state AG’s efforts “empty” voter intimidation. . “It appears through their pattern of lawsuits, raids, searches, and seizures they are trying to prevent Latinos from voting.”
Proaño said one of the targets was Lidia Martinez, an 87-year-old who lives in San Antonio. Martinez has been a member of LULAC for more than 35 years and works to expand voter registration among seniors and veterans in South Texas.
He said that last Tuesday, someone knocked on his door early in the morning, and he was greeted by nine officers in tactical gear and firearms who said they were serving a warrant. Martinez was questioned for more than three hours about voter registration efforts in Texas.
Law enforcement seized Martinez’s phone, computer, personal calendar, blank voter registration forms and certificates to conduct voter registration, according to Martinez.
“This is a free country, this is not Russia,” Martinez said Monday during a press conference denouncing the attack.
Manuel Medina, chairman of the Tejano Democrats, was another LULAC member targeted, the LULAC CEO said. Medina’s home was raided last Thursday by police in riot gear, who were armed and broke down the door, according to LULAC officials.
Paxton’s office said in a news release it will continue to conduct undercover operations led by the Election Integrity Unit. The Texas AG’s office said it received a referral from 81st Judicial District Attorney Audrey Louis regarding “allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting that occurred during the 2022 election.” The release added that the two-year investigation “provided sufficient evidence to obtain a search warrant.”
This unit was created after Trump Lose the 2020 election to President Biden and aimed to investigate alleged voter fraud across the country, although officials in the Trump administration said the election had already been rigged. secure.
“My office investigates every credible report we receive of potential criminal activity that could compromise the integrity of our elections,” Paxton said. “The Biden-Harris administration is deliberately flooding our country with illegal aliens, and without proper safeguards, foreign nationals can illegally influence elections at the local, state, and national levels.”
Fin Gómez
