Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton is facing accusations he is using his office to suppress Latino voters in the state. The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the country’s oldest Latino civil rights group, is calling on the Justice Department to investigate Paxton over a series of police raids on the homes of LULAC members, state lawmakers and other community leaders in the San Antonio area last week. Previously, Paxton had tried and failed to shut down the Houston-based and immigrant-led civil rights group Familias Inmigrantes y Estudiantes en la Lucha (FIEL) by claiming it engaged in electioneering. We’re joined by the director of FIEL, Cesar Espinosa, and the CEO of LULAC, Juan Proaño, who both share how their organizations have been impacted by the attorney general’s harassment and intimidation. Proaño calls the targeting of Latino leaders and organizations a pattern of “blatant discrimination” and says, “We see these as tactics essentially for Republicans to stay in control of the government in Texas.”
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.