By Fin Gómez, Nidia Cavazos
/ CBS News
8/26: CBS News 24/7 Episode 2
The nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organization, LULAC, is one of several entities in Texas targeted in voter fraud raids led by state Attorney General Ken Paxton, CBS News has learned.
In a letter first obtained by CBS News, LULAC requested that the Justice Department investigate Paxton’s office for Voting Rights Act violations. The organization is accusing Paxton’s office of carrying out illegal searches premised on voter fraud.
“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,” LULAC CEO Juan Proaño and the group’s national president, Roman Palomares, said in the letter.
The Justice Department confirmed receipt of the letter and declined to comment further.
Last week, Paxton’s office announced in a press release that it was launching undercover operations and investigation into reports alleging some organizations in Texas are unlawfully registering noncitizens to vote, in violation of state and federal law.
LULAC officials told CBS News that some of the group’s Texas members were targeted and had their laptops and cell phones confiscated by Texas authorities executing search warrants. Some of the raids focused on Latino activists across the state.
“Attorney General Paxton is using his position of authority to harass and intimidate Latino non-profit organizations like LULAC, Latino Leaders and LULAC members,” Juan Proaño, LULAC’s CEO told CBS News, calling the state AG’s effort “point-blank” voter intimidation. “It is evident through his pattern of lawsuits, raids, searches, and seizures that he is trying to keep Latinos from voting.”
Proaño said one of those targeted was Lidia Martinez, an 87-year-old who lives in San Antonio. Martinez has been a LULAC member for over 35 years and works to expand voter registration among seniors and veterans in South Texas.
She said that last Tuesday, there was a knock on her door in the morning, and she was greeted by nine officers in tactical gear and firearms who said they were executing a search warrant. Martinez was questioned for over three hours about her voter registration efforts in Texas.
Law enforcement seized Martinez’s phone, computer, personal calendar, blank voter registration forms and her certificate 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 raid.
Manuel Medina, the chair of Tejano Democrats, is another LULAC member who was targeted, LULAC’s CEO said. Medina’s home was raided last Thursday by police in riot gear, who were armed and broke down his door, according to LULAC officials.
Paxton’s office said in its news release it would continue to conduct undercover operations led by its Election Integrity Unit. The Texas AG’s office said it received a referral from the 81st Judicial District Attorney Audrey Louis regarding “allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting that occurred during the 2022 elections.” The release added that a two-year investigation “provided sufficient evidence to obtain the search warrants.”
This unit was created in the aftermath of Trump’s 2020 election loss to President Biden and aimed to probe alleged voter fraud across the state, even though officials in the Trump administration said the election had been secure.
“My office is investigating every credible report we receive regarding potential criminal activity that could compromise the integrity of our elections,” Paxton said. “The Biden-Harris Administration has intentionally flooded our country with illegal aliens, and without proper safeguards, foreign nationals can illegally influence elections at the local, state, and national level.”
