A Latino civil rights group is asking the Department of Justice to open an investigation into a series of raids conducted on Latino voting activists and political operatives as part of sprawling voter fraud inquiry by the Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton.
The League of United Latin American Citizens, one of the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organizations, said that many of those targeted were Democratic leaders and election volunteers, and that some were older residents. Gabriel Rosales, the director of the group’s Texas chapter, said that officers conducting the raids took cellphones, computers and documents. He called the raids “alarming” and said they were an effort to suppress Latino voters.
In a statement last week, Mr. Paxton described the raids, carried out in counties near San Antonio and South Texas, as part of an “ongoing election integrity investigation” that began two years ago to look into allegations of election fraud and vote harvesting. His office has said that it will not comment on the investigation because it is still underway.
That investigation, which included the creation of an election integrity unit, came as Republican-led states sought to crack down on supposed voter crime after former President Donald J. Trump began making false claims of fraud in the wake of the 2020 election. Experts have found that voter fraud remains rare.
Republican district attorneys and state attorneys general have been promoting aggressive prosecutions in voter fraud cases, sometimes making felony cases out of instances that might have been labeled mistakes in the past.
On Tuesday, Mr. Rosales said, officers raided the home of Cecilia Castellano, a Democrat running against Don McLaughlin, the former mayor of Uvalde, for a state House seat, taking her cellphone.
Ms. Castellano described her experience as “very frightening” and said she still did not know why she was targeted. “This is all political,” she said.
Last week, officers also broke down a door to raid the home of Manuel Medina, a consultant for Ms. Castellano’s campaign and the chair of the Tejano Democrats, a group that advocates Hispanic representation in the Democratic Party.
“I have been contacted by elderly residents who are confused and frightened, wondering why they have been singled out,” Mr. Rosales said. “It’s pure intimidation.”
One of those residents was Lidia Martinez, an 87-year-old retired educator in San Antonio. She said she heard a knock on her door right before 6 a.m. on Tuesday. She thought that maybe a neighbor needed milk and eggs, she said, and she fastened her sleeping gown and opened the door.
Nine officers, seven of them men, some with guns in their holsters, then pushed open the door and marched past a living room wall decorated with crucifixes, she said.
“I got scared,” she recalled in an interview on Sunday, speaking in both English and Spanish. “They told me, ‘We have a warrant to search your house.’ I said, ‘Why?’ I felt harassed.”
Ms. Martinez said that the officers told her they came because she had filled out a report saying that older residents were not getting mail ballots. “Yes, I did,” she told them. For 35 years, Ms. Martinez has been a member of LULAC, the civil rights group, helping Latino residents stay engaged in politics. Much of her work has included instructing older residents and veterans on how to fill out voter registration cards.
“I go to a lot of senior events; I explain to them what they have to do,” she said. “I’ve been involved in politics all of my life.”
The officers said they were looking for voter cards that residents had filled out, she said.
“I told them, I don’t have them here,” she said.
One of the officers handed her a copy of the search warrant and ordered her to sit at her kitchen table. Two of the agents went to her bedroom and searched everywhere, “my underwear, my nightgown, everything, they went through everything,” she recalled. They took her laptop, phone, planner and some documents.
“They asked me about my entire life,” she said. They also asked her if she knew fellow LULAC members, Mr. Medina and area politicians. “I told them, ‘I haven’t committed any crimes,’” she said. Ms. Martinez has not been arrested or charged. Mr. Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday.
But in his statement last week, Mr. Paxton said that the search warrants were connected to a referral from Audrey Gossett Louis, a district attorney from the 81st Judicial District, which includes Atascosa and Frio Counties, where Mr. Paxton’s office conducted some of the raids. Efforts to reach Ms. Gossett Louis on Sunday were unsuccessful.
“Secure elections are the cornerstone of our Republic,” Mr. Paxton said. “We were glad to assist when the district attorney referred this case to my office for investigation. We are completely committed to protecting the security of the ballot box and the integrity of every legal vote. This means ensuring accountability for anyone committing election crimes.”
Leaders with LULAC and elected officials are planning to hold a news conference on Monday outside the attorney general’s office in San Antonio to demand answers.
Days after the raid, Ms. Martinez said she still felt shaken. But she said she remained committed to the cause.
“They wanted to intimidate me,” she said. “But this is important work.”
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