Texas AG raids homes of Latino civil rights group members, setting up a voting rights showdown
The raids have triggered outrage and cries of voter suppression in a state with a long history of discrimination against citizens of Mexican descent, which helped give rise to LULAC.
Aug. 26, 2024, 1:40 PM EDT By Suzanne Gamboa and Jane C. Timm
SAN ANTONIO — Raids on the homes of several Democrats in South Texas, in what the state attorney general said is an ongoing election integrity investigation, has set off a showdown with the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights group.
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.
The raids have triggered outrage and accusations of voter suppression in a state with a long history of discrimination against its citizens of Mexican descent, which gave rise to LULAC in 1929.
On Monday morning, LULAC leaders, state legislators, activists of other Latino groups and supporters and some of the people whose homes were raided protested outside the San Antonio office of Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican.
“This is point blank voter intimidation, and LULAC will fight for the right of every Latino to exercise the right to vote,” said Roman Palomares, LULAC's national president.
A copy of a wide-ranging search warrant left with one of the people targeted, LULAC volunteer Lidia Martinez, 87, of San Antonio,offered a window into the investigation’s interests. The warrant ordered the seizure of all electronic devices at her home, allowed for the opening of documents that were business-, organization- or election-related, and authorized swabbing for DNA.
According to the warrant, the purpose of the search was to look for evidence of violations of the Texas election laws regarding vote harvesting and identity fraud.
Medina’s home was also “forcibly entered” in the early morning of Aug. 20. According to a filing from his attorney, officers woke up Medina, his wife and two young daughters, and “rummaged through the residence” for seven hours, the attorney said, searching through the living spaces, closets, kitchen, bathrooms, garage and the family’s bedrooms.Officers seized 65 cellphones and 41 computers and storage devices, the filing said.
Two Democratic consultants who weren’t knowledgeable about Medina’s business or the investigation said someone running an election phone banking or canvassing operation can have multiple phones and computers for volunteers and staff.Medina's attorney was granted his request for an injunction to block the attorney general or any other state officials from reviewing the documents or disseminating them. A hearing on the search and seizures was set for Sept. 12.
In his filing requesting the injunction, Medina's attorney said authorities seized almost 65 cell phones and 41 computers, digital and other storage devices, papers, documents and family and other photographs.The attorney and Medina declined comment when reached Friday by NBC News.
“There is no poll tax. There is no white-only primary. There is no going back. We will not go back,” Domingo Garcia, LULAC’s former president, said during Monday’s protest. Garcia now heads a recently formed LULAC political action committee that endorsed Kamala Harris.
Paxton, who announced the raids Thursday in a news release, has been outspoken in advancing baseless claims about voter fraud — particularly about noncitizens voting in the upcoming election.
“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, too. There’s no evidence of that, or that noncitizens cast ballots in any significant numbers. In the release announcing the raids, Paxton said his office would have no further comments on the investigation. NBC News reached out Friday and has not received a response.
But the release did state that the raids were the result of a two-year investigation based on allegations of voting and election violations from Audrey Gossett Louis, a district attorney for five area counties.
Latino leaders have called on the Department of Justice to investigate and are alleging the raids are a political move to suppress Latino votes. A Justice Department spokesperson said they are aware of the matter but declined to comment….
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/house-raids-texas-democrats-ken-paxton-voting-rights-lulac-rcna168216