McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) – Several Democratic Texas lawmakers are asking the Justice Department to investigate recent “raids” of South Texas homes and businesses by Republican Texas’ Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office in its efforts to eradicate voter fraud.
Eleven Democratic representatives, including two from the border, on Friday sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the Justice Department to investigate a series of recent searches by Paxton’s office on several homes and businesses in South Texas, which they call “raids.”
“We write to you with urgent concerns over recent actions undertaken at the direction of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to raid the homes of activists, volunteers, and political operatives in South Texas and the San Antonio area and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to remove thousands of individuals from voter rolls with little transparency. We are concerned that these actions are intended to intimidate American citizens, in particular Latinos and members of minority communities, from exercising their right to vote through political persecution or deny them that right altogether. We request that the Department investigate these actions,” the letter says.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, from El Paso, co-authored the letter with U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, of San Antonio. U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, of McAllen, signed off on it, as did: U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett and Greg Casar, of Austin; Jasmine Crockett, Sylvia Garcia and Lizzie Fletcher, of Houston; Marc Veasey, of Fort Worth; Colin Allred of Dallas, and Al Green, whose district includes southern Harris County.
“Under the guise of conducting an election integrity investigation, AG Paxton recently authorized raids at the homes of primarily Latino activists, volunteers, and political operatives in South
Texas and the San Antonio area,” the letter claims.
Investigators from the Texas Attorney General’s Election Integrity Unit last month conducted undercover operations to identify potential voter registration of noncitizens in Texas.
The searches are part of a statewide campaign Paxton has launched into voter fraud. Paxton says he is ensuring all votes that will be cast in November are legal.
Earlier this week, he sent warnings to Bexar and Harris counties commissioners courts saying that their proposed plans to mail voter registration forms to individuals regardless of the eligibility of the recipients would violate the law.
On Thursday, he filed a lawsuit against Travis County leaders accusing them of spending public funds on a “partisan” voter registration company, according to KXAN.
““There is nothing more important than the integrity of our elections. This means protecting every legal vote from unlawful attempts to alter the outcome of our elections. Any attempt to illegally cancel out legal ballots with fraud, vote harvesting, or other methods will be met with the full force of the law,” Paxton said in a statement.
Paxton last week issued a legal advisory and opened a tip line where the public may report suspected violations of the Texas Election Code. Reports can be emailed to [email protected].
Lawmakers, however, say the raids on South Texas voters included a grandmother who was forced to wait outside her home in just a nightgown. Her story has garnered support from Latino organizations, including the nation’s largest and oldest Hispanic civil rights organization League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), which was founded by César Chávez.
Border Report spoke with Lidia Martinez, 80, who said her San Antonio home was raided on Aug. 20 by nine agents from Paxton’s office who took her cellphone, appointment book and laptop.
“I’ve very angry and I’m scared,” Martinez told Border Report. “They questioned me for three hours. They came in and there were seven men and two women and they came in and searched all my house. Every single thing in there. And I asked them if I could change my clothes, and they told me ‘no,'” Martinez said.
LULAC has also asked the justice Department to investigate the incidents.
“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,” LULAC’s Texas State Director Gabriel Rosales said after the searches.
“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,” Rosales said.
On Saturday, LULAC is planning to hold a demonstration and voter registration rally outside Paxton’s offices in San Antonio from 10:30 a.m. to noon CST at 10010 N. San Pedro Avenue at Ramsey Street, the organization announced Friday.
In their Friday letter, lawmakers wrote “in 2022, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that AG Paxton does not have the authority to unilaterally prosecute election cases and must first receive permission from local county prosecutors to pursue cases such as voter fraud.”
They also charged Paxton with abuse of power and cited his recent probes into human trafficking allegations against several border migrant centers, like Annunciation House, in El Paso; Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley; Team Brownsville and Immigrant Families and Students in the Fight (FIEL) of Houston.
In each case, judges have all ruled against Paxton’s efforts.
Lawmakers also called out Gov. Greg Abbott for removing 6,500 purported “noncitizens” from voter roles.
“There is little to no transparency in how Governor Abbott has assessed these individuals to be “potential noncitizens,” and we fear these decisions may be made on the basis of those individuals’ perceived race or ethnicity and may deny American citizens their right to vote,” the lawmakers wrote.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at [email protected].