The homes of several Texas Latino campaign volunteers have been raided in what the state Attorney General Ken Paxton, said is an ongoing election integrity investigation. Now, the oldest and largest Latino civil rights group is asking the Department of Justice to investigate the nature of these warrants.
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) president Roman Palomares and CEO Juan Proaño sent a letter Monday to the DOJ expressing the group's concern over the raids, which he claims have "violated" the civil rights of Latino citizens in Texas, The Hill reports.
"These actions echo a troubling history of voter suppression and intimidation that has long targeted both Black and Latino communities, particularly in states like Texas, where demographic changes have increasingly shifted the political landscape," the two executives said in the letter.
The Aug. 20 raids targeted Manuel Medina, chair of the Tejano Democrats, several members of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a state House candidate and a local area mayor, according to the Associated Press.
Medina told reporters that agents searched his home for several hours and seized numerous documents, computers and cellphones.
Similarly, Lidia Martinez, who instructs older residents on how to vote, said nine investigators rummaged through her home for more than two hours and took her smartphone and watch. She said officers told her they were there because she filed a complaint that seniors weren't getting their mail ballots. The search warrant ordered officials to confiscate any election-related items, NBC News reports.
"They sat me down and they started searching all my house, my store room, my garage, kitchen, everything," Martinez said at a news conference Monday.
"I'm not doing anything illegal. All I do is help the seniors," she continued.
Paxton has said his office's Election Integrity Unit began looking into the allegations after receiving a referral from a local prosecutor. He said that the investigation involved "allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting" and that a two-year probe provided sufficient evidence to obtain a search warrant.
"Secure elections are the cornerstone of our republic," Paxton said in a statement last week. "We were glad to assist when the District Attorney referred this case to my office for investigation."
This isn't the first time Paxton has shown his skepticism at the elections.
"There's a reason Joe Biden brought people here illegally," Paxton said on a radio show earlier this month. "I'm convinced that that's how they're going to do it this time, they're going to use the illegal vote. Why were they brought in, why did he bring in 14 million people? He brought them here to vote."
Paxton falsely claimed that immigrants were being given Social Security numbers at the border as part of the scheme. But there's no evidence of that, or that citizens cast ballots in any significant numbers.
LULAC leaders said Wednesday that the group has been in contact with the department, blocking further search warrants and potentially pursuing criminal and civil charges against Paxton's office.
At the same time, a Texas district judge has granted Medina a protective order to stop authorities from rummaging through his records. A hearing on the matter is set for Sept. 12.
LULAC alleges Paxton's searches are a violation of the Voting Rights Act and other federal civil rights laws.
"It is disgraceful and outrageous that the state of Texas, and its highest-ranking law enforcement officer, is once again using the power of his office to instill fear in the hearts of community members who volunteer their time to promote civic engagement," said Gabriel Rosales, Texas state director of LULAC said.
"I have been contacted by elderly residents who are confused and frightened, wondering why they have been singled out. Attorney General Paxton's actions clearly aim to suppress the Latino vote through intimidation and any means necessary to tilt the electoral process in favor of his political allies," he continued.
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