SAN ANTONIO — Raids on the homes of several South Texas Democrats in what the state attorney general said is an ongoing investigation into election integrity have set off a showdown with the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights organization.
The August 20 attack targeted Tejano Democratic Party Chairman Manuel Medina, several members of the League of Latin American Citizens, a state legislative candidate, and a local mayor.
Lidia Martinez, a LULAC volunteer and voter registration worker, questioned why all of her belongings were searched. NBC
The attack sparked anger and accusations of voter suppression in a state with a long history of discrimination against Mexican-Americans, where LULAC was founded in 1929.
On Monday morning, LULAC leaders, state lawmakers, activists and supporters from other Latino groups, and some of those whose homes were raided protested outside the San Antonio office of Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“This is blatant voter intimidation and LULAC will fight for the right of all Latinos to exercise their right to vote,” said LULAC National President Roman Palomares.
A copy of the extensive search warrant left with one of the targets, Lidia Martinez, an 87-year-old LULAC volunteer from San Antonio, offered a glimpse into the investigators’ interests. The warrant ordered the seizure of all electronic devices in her home, authorized the unsealing of business, organizational and election-related documents, and authorized the taking of DNA samples. According to the warrant, the purpose of the search was to look for evidence of violations of Texas election law related to vote harvesting and identity fraud.
Medina’s home was also “unlawfully entered” in the early morning hours of August 20. Officers woke Medina, his wife and their two young daughters and “ran the residence” for seven hours, searching the living room, closets, kitchen, bathroom, garage and family bedrooms, according to his lawyer’s filing. Officers confiscated 65 cell phones and 41 computers and storage devices, according to the filing.
Medina’s lawyers were granted a request for a preliminary injunction to block the attorney general and other state officials from inspecting or distributing the documents. A hearing on the search and seizure is scheduled for September 12.
Medina’s lawyers said in documents seeking the injunction that authorities seized about 65 cell phones, 41 computers, digital and other storage devices, papers, documents and photographs of family and others.
The lawyer and Medina declined to comment when asked by NBC News on Friday.
“There will be no poll tax. There will be no whites-only primary. There is no going back. We are not going back,” said Domingo Garcia, a former LULAC president, at Monday’s protest. Garcia now serves as president of the recently formed LULAC political action committee, which has endorsed Sen. Kamala Harris.
Paxton, who announced the search in a news release on Thursday, has openly advanced unfounded claims of voter fraud, particularly regarding foreign nationals 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 confident that they’re going to do that again this time. They’re going to take advantage of the illegal votes. Why were they brought here, why did he bring 14 million people? He brought them here to vote.”
Paxton also falsely claimed that immigrants at the border were being given Social Security numbers as part of the plan. There is no evidence of this, nor that foreign nationals voted in any significant numbers.
Paxton, in a statement announcing the search, said he would not be commenting further on the investigation. NBC News reached out to him on Friday but did not receive a response.
Latino leaders have called for a Justice Department investigation and say the attack is a political move to suppress Latino voting.
“It is shameful and outrageous that the state of Texas and its highest-ranking law enforcement official are once again using their powers to sow fear in the hearts of community members who volunteer their time to promote civic engagement,” said Gabriel Rosales, Texas director for LULAC, which focuses on Latino economic, political and civil rights.
“We have heard from frightened and confused elderly residents who wonder why they were the ones being targeted. It is clear that Attorney General Paxton’s actions are intended to suppress the Latino vote through intimidation and any other means necessary to tilt the electoral process in favor of his political allies,” he added.
Cecilia Castellano, a candidate for the 80th state Assembly District, said a search warrant was issued for her phone just after 6 a.m. on the same day as the other candidates. Medina works for Castellano’s campaign.
“I was still asleep and was woken up by the sound of the doorbell and heavy knocking,” she later told NBC News. “I went to the front door. [door] And there are flashlights on in my house.”
The officers gave Castellano a copy of the search warrant and left with her work cell phone.
Castellano said he felt the searches were an attempt at political intimidation, adding that he had heard warrants had also been issued for two other people who volunteered for his campaign. He said he never helped people register to vote or vote by mail and didn’t know what he was being investigated for.
Martinez told NBC News that she had woken up early, as she usually does, to water her plants when she heard a knock on the door at 6 a.m. and opened it to find a group of armed men and women holding police badges, riot shields and a search warrant.
Still in her nightgown, Martinez asked to change clothes, but instead she said she was forced to sit in her dining room and answer questions while agents searched nearly everything in her two-bedroom home for four hours, with two officers standing guard around her.
“They searched everything: my underwear, my bras, my nightgown, everything,” said Martinez, a LULAC member for 35 years. “They went into my garage, they opened my car. They searched my entire car, my entire garage, my refrigerator, my kitchen cupboards, everything.”
At a news conference, Martinez said she was forced to stand outside her home in her nightgown, within sight of neighbors, for about 30 minutes while officers searched the dining room.
She said they did not tell her what they were looking for and instead interrogated her for four hours about Manuel Medina and when she joined LULAC.
They left with her appointment book, cell phone, laptop, blank voter registration card and voter registration course completion certificate.
At the press conference, Martinez said nine people came to her home to execute a search warrant, and her family asked her to stop volunteering with LULAC and registering voters, fearing she would end up in jail.
“I grew up on the west side of San Antonio. My dad owned two grocery stores and he taught us the right to vote,” said Martinez, a San Antonio native. She added that she has five brothers who served in the military, one of whom was killed in Vietnam and received a Silver Star. Martinez is a commander with the American Legion.
“They’re trying to stop us from registering to vote and helping people, especially seniors,” she said.
“If I don’t show up, some of us have expired voter registrations and we’re in wheelchairs and we don’t have the means to get to the elections office to get our registration forms,” Martinez said.
