Multiple Texas LULAC members were targeted by Republican Texas Attorney General Paxton for alleged voter fraud and vote harvesting, which LULAC National says, Paxton's allegations are baseless and has no evidence.
By H. Nelson Goodson
Hispanic News Network U.S.A.
August 30, 2024
Austin, Texas - Both the LULAC National and U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA) have requested the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Civil Rights Division to investigate the recent targeted raids of several Latino voting rights organizers, officials, and candidates by Texas Attorney General (AG) Ken Paxton's (R) election integrity unit.
LULAC National President Roman Palomares and Juan Proaño, the LULAC CEO wrote in a letter to Honorable Kristen Clarke, Asst. Attorney General for Civil Rights USDOJ that Texas Attorney General Paxton has a documented history of targeting Latino organizations, as evidenced by his recent actions against Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley and Annunciation House. These actions appear to be motivated not by legitimate legal concens but by a desire to suppress the Latino vote, which is becoming increasingly influential in Texas and across the nation. We believe that his conduct constitutes a direct attempt to suppress the Latino vote through intimidation and harassment, in violation of Voting Rights Act and other federal civil rights laws.
Last week on August 20th, Texas state law enforcement officers executed at least 12 warrants and raided multiple homes of LULAC members including Lydia Martinez, 87, who was interrogated for hours, Cecilia Castellano, 46, (D), a candidate for the Texas State House District 80 and LULAC member, Mary Ann Obregón, 80, the Mayor of Dilley, Texas, and Manuel Medina, former Chair of the Bexar County Democrat Party.
Cellphones, computers and other items were confiscated by Texas law enforcement, according to those targeted by AG Paxton, 61.
The AG Paxton raids were conducted in three counties, Frio, Atascota and Bexar resulting from a two year election integrity investigation alleging voter fraud and vote harvesting. According to Texas AG Paxton, in 2022, the Election Integrity Unit received a referral from the 81st Judicial District Attorney Audrey Louis (R) regarding allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting that occurred during the 2022 elections. The subsequent two-year investigation provided sufficient evidence to obtain the search warrants in furtherance of the ongoing investigation.
No AG Paxton raids were conducted against any Republican in Texas, only Democrats and Latinos were targeted for alleged voter fraud and vote harvesting without actual evidence, LULAC National executives claimed.
The Texas Tribune reported that Gabriel Rosales, Texas LULAC's state director, said in a statement that Paxton carried out the raids 11 weeks before the 2024 elections "to suppress the Latino vote through intimidation and any means necessary to tilt the electoral process in favor of his political allies."
Agents raided the home of Cecilia Castellano — the Democrat running to succeed state Rep. Tracy King, D-Uvalde — and confiscated her phone as part of the search, according to Rosales. Republicans see that seat, which Gov. Greg Abbott carried by nearly 6 percentage points, as their best potential state House flip in November.
Law enforcement also searched the homes of at least five other Latino individuals, all of whom were working on Castellano's campaign and three of whom are members of Texas LULAC, Rosales added. LULAC is a non-partisan, volunteer-based Hispanic civil rights organization headquartered in Washington, the Texas Tribune reported.
Juan Proaño, the LULAC CEO told Democracy Now dot org, in response to Texas Governor Greg Abbot's (R) announcement of removing 1 million names from the Texas voter rolls, that "I actually went through those numbers. Over 467,000 of them, essentially, are deceased, right? Another 400,000 or so are, effectively, what they call in the suspended mode, but only 6,500 of those are actually what are classified, effectively, as noncitizens. So you're talking about .0065%. Less than 1% of those are actually noncitizens. And only 1,900, which is 1/1000th of a percent of that million, have actually any voting history at all whatsoever. But to say that there is systemic voter fraud and voter harvesting happening in the state of Texas is absolutely false."
According to Rosales in Texas, LULAC National is now considering legal action against Texas AG Paxton and LULAC is also considering to partner with the Amercan Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Mexican American Legal Defense & Education Fund (MALDEF) to sue Paxton.
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