Twitter / @RolandForTexas
LULAC officials speak a press conference in front of the Texas Attorney General's Office in San Antonio.
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) wants a federal investigation into raids Texas Attorney General conducted last week in San Antonio and South Texas as part of what his office called an ongoing probe into "election integrity."
During a Monday press conference, LULAC officials said the raids are a bid by the Republican law-enforcement official to suppress the vote ahead of November's election. The warrants largely targeted Latinos — some of them elderly — who work to mobilize voters, the civil-rights group alleges.
"Attorney General Paxton is working to suppress the Latino vote using a call for election integrity as a veil for voter intimidation," LULAC National President Roman Palomares said at the gathering outside the San Antonio office of the Texas attorney general's office.
"Attorney General Paxton's tactics will create a chilling effect that will stifle the Latino vote this election cycle," Palomares added. "It is evident through his pattern of lawsuits, raids, searches and seizures that he is trying to keep Latinos from voting. LULAC will not stand idly by and allow our members to be targeted, harassed, bullied or intimidated."
LULAC officials said they're asking the U.S. Justice Department and FBI to examine whether Paxton's actions violated the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. They also want authorities to determine whether the raids — which included the three-hour interrogation of a great-grandmother who works to register veterans and senior citizens to vote — constitute elder abuse.
That great-grandmother, Lydia Martinez, 87, said officials dispatched by Paxton's office entered her home last week, confiscating her phone, computer and a calendar she used to keep track of medical appointments. During the three-hour interrogation, they paraded her in her front yard wearing nothing but her nightgown, she added.
"I said, 'I help the seniors, I help the veterans. What do you want from me?'" Martinez told the crowd at Monday's press event.
Paxton also dispatched law enforcement officials to raid the home of Cecilia Castellano, a Democrat running for the Texas House's 80th District, according to LULAC. Those personnel also confiscated Castellano's phone as they executed the warrant.
Castellano is running to succeed Texas Rep. Tracy King, a fellow Democrat whose district includes Uvalde. State Republicans see that seat as their most viable target to flip in the upcoming election, according to a recent Texas Tribune report.
All of the Latinos targeted in last week's raids have worked on Castellano’s campaign, LULAC officials said. Manuel Medina, a former chair of the Bexar County Democratic Party and chief of staff to state Rep. Liz Campos, D-San Antonio, also was swept up in the dragnet, the Texas Tribune reports.
"It became apparent that this was yet another attempt by Ken Paxton and his associates to harass and intimidate individuals for their own political gain," Castellano said at the press conference.
The execution of last week's warrants are part of a high-profile campaign by Paxton to track down purported instances of voter fraud. However, successful prosecutions — much less evidence of widespread fraud — have remained elusive.
Paxton's office spent $2.3 million last year to prosecute just four cases of election fraud, Houston Chronicle reports. A separate Texas Tribune investigation revealed that a number of the office's cases "quietly unraveled" after being reviewed by the courts.
Paxton and other Texas Republicans have a long history of making unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud. The attorney general faced widespread criticism and a misconduct lawsuit from the State Bar of Texas after he made a series of false accusations that the 2020 election was rigged to ensure Donald Trump's loss.
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