Securities fraudster and bribe- taking (allegedly!) ultra- MAGAt Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is going after a Latino civil rights organization that's supporting Democratic get- out- the- vote efforts.
The nation's oldest Latino civil rights organization, LULAC, is one of several entities in Texas targeted in voter fraud raids led by state Attorney General Ken Paxton, CBS News has learned.
In a letter first obtained by CBS News, LULAC requested that the Justice Department investigate Paxton's office for Voting Rights Act violations. The organization is accusing Paxton's office of carrying out illegal searches premised on voter fraud.
"These actions echo a troubling history of voter suppression and intimidation that has long targeted both Black and Latino communities, particularly in states like Texas, where demographic changes have increasingly shifted the political landscape," LULAC CEO Juan Proaño and the group's national president, Roman Palomares, said in the letter.
The Justice Department confirmed receipt of the letter and declined to comment further. (Ed. -- somebody wake up Merrick Garland!)
Last week, Paxton's office announced in a press release that it was launching undercover operations and an investigation into reports alleging some organizations in Texas are unlawfully registering noncitizens to vote, in violation of state and federal law.
LULAC officials told CBS News that some of the group's Texas members were targeted and had their laptops and cell phones confiscated by Texas authorities executing search warrants. Some of the raids focused on Latino activists across the state.
"Attorney General Paxton is using his position of authority to harass and intimidate Latino non-profit organizations like LULAC, Latino Leaders and LULAC members," Juan Proaño, LULAC's CEO told CBS News, calling the state AG's effort "point-blank" voter intimidation. "It is evident through his pattern of lawsuits, raids, searches, and seizures that he is trying to keep Latinos from voting."... (our emphasis)
Texas will one day be a purple, then a blue state, and everything voter intimidating and suppressing MAGAt Republicans like Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott are doing, in concert with their gerrymandered legislature and corrupt courts, is intended to delay that day for as long as they can. For years, Paxton has been using bogus claims of "voter fraud" to justify voter intimidation tactics (whenever he's not in court defending himself against fraud and bribery charges). It's long been a Republican thing to try to suppress the votes of Democratic constituencies, but it's been kicked up several notches in the autocratic Malignant Loser era because the stake have gotten higher with each election, and because it's Republicans, not Democrats, that have to cheat to win.
(Cartoon: Steve Sack, Minneapolis Tribune (2021))
