SAN ANTONIO — 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 a sprawling voter-fraud inquiry by 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 in their 70s and 80s. Gabriel Rosales, director of the group’s Texas chapter, said officers conducting the raids took cellphones, computers and documents. He called the raids “alarming” and said they were an effort to suppress Latino voters.

At a news conference Monday outside the attorney general’s offices in San Antonio, members of the group, known as LULAC, said they were filing a civil-rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice. Roland Gutierrez, a state senator, said he was requesting a state Senate investigation into the raids.

“You don’t go after our grandmothers,” Domingo Garcia, a LULAC leader, told reporters.

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Raids Carried Out Near San Antonio

The raids were carried out in counties near San Antonio and South Texas. In a statement last week, Paxton, a Republican, said they were 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 it would not comment on the investigation because it is still underway.

That investigation is being carried out by a unit in Paxton’s office, the election integrity unit, that was created after former President Donald Trump began making false claims of fraud after the 2020 election, and Republican-led states sought to crack down on supposed voter crime. Experts have found that voter fraud remains rare.

The actions by Paxton come as state Republican leaders push for greater scrutiny of election administration, particularly in Democratic-led cities. Audits have turned up administrative failures in places like Houston, but no widespread fraud.

Some Republicans have expressed concern that a surge in migrants arriving in recent years would lead to more noncitizens attempting to vote, but a top Texas election official said Monday that it had not happened.

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“We have not seen any unusual activity,” Christina Adkins, the election director for the Texas secretary of state’s office, which conducted recent audits, said at a legislative committee hearing.

Even so, on Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott highlighted the number of noncitizens found to have voted in Texas — about 1,900 since 2021 — and said that the state would take action. “Illegal voting in Texas will never be tolerated,” he said in a statement.

The governor’s office said records related to the noncitizens who voted were being sent to Paxton’s office for investigation and potential legal action.

Officers Take Candidates Phone

Rosales said that on Aug. 20 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.

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 Castellano’s campaign and the chair of the Tejano Democrats, a group that pushes for 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,” 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. Tuesday. She thought that maybe a neighbor needed milk and eggs, she said, and she fastened her sleeping gown and opened the door.

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Nine officers, seven of them men, some with guns in their holsters, pushed open the door and marched past a living room wall decorated with crucifixes, she said.

“I got scared,” she recalled in an interview Sunday, speaking in English and Spanish. “They told me, ‘We have a warrant to search your house.’ I said, ‘Why?’ I felt harassed.”

Martinez said 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, 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.

The officers questioned her for about three hours, she said.

“They asked me about my entire life,” she said. They also asked her if she knew fellow LULAC members, Medina and area politicians. “I told them, ‘I haven’t committed any crimes,’” she said. Martinez has not been arrested or charged. Paxton’s office did not respond to a request for comment Sunday.

But in his statement last week, Paxton said 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 Paxton’s office conducted some of the raids. Efforts to reach Gossett Louis on Sunday were unsuccessful.

“Secure elections are the cornerstone of our Republic,” 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.”

Days after the raid, 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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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Edgar Sandoval/Christopher Lee
c. 2024 The New York Times Company