#lulac

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

On August 20, a little before dawn, 87 year-old Lidia Martinez was abruptly jarred awake by an unexpected knock on her door. The longtime activist who for over 35 years has worked to expand voter registration among seniors and veterans in south Texas, cautiously peered out the door. Standing on her doorstep were nine police officers dressed in tactical gear and carrying firearms. After showing her a search warrant, Martinez’s home was searched as she was forced to stand outside in her nightgown in her driveway in full view of her neighbors. Martinez was later questioned for three hours after which the police seized her phone, computer, personal calendar and more.

[...]

These bad faith searches orchestrated by Paxton were predicated on the claim that the people being investigated were registering non-citizens to vote—despite zero evidence presented of wrongdoing. Very alarmingly, if Donald Trump and House GOP have their way, these types of raids would be happening nationwide with federal law enforcement under a GOP President.  That is why GOP House Speaker Johnson is now demanding the proposed SAVE Act be included in any deal to provide funding to keep the government open.

To be clear, federal and state law already makes it a crime for non-citizens to vote. But this new federal legislation would establish criminal penalties for registering an applicant to vote in a federal election who fails to present documentation proving U.S. citizenship.  That means that what we are seeing in Texas is coming attractions of what the GOP wants to do nationally.

Keep in mind despite Texas AG Paxton’s two year investigation, no charges  have been filed against any of the people whose homes were searched.  Indeed, there may never be charges because even Paxton’s basis for the search is BS. In his press release announcing the investigation, the Texas AG presents no evidence of wrongdoing. Instead, Paxton makes baseless claims like these organizations have set up voter registration booths outside state agencies where people could register inside. Paxton’s press release literally includes this question with no answer: “Why would they need a second opportunity to register with a booth outside?” But nowhere in his press release does he even allege any criminal conduct—only questions.

And Paxton—a close ally of convicted felon Trump—showed his bad faith earlier in August on a radio show when he peddled lies about non-citizens voting. Paxton declared, “There’s a reason Joe Biden brought people here illegally. I’m convinced that that’s how they’re going to do it this time, they’re going to use the illegal vote. Why were they brought in, why did he bring in 14 million people?” adding, “He brought them here to vote.”   That is nothing more than the type of BS you hear on Fox News. But now Paxton has weaponized government by targeting people registering those he believes will vote for Democrats. The backlash to Paxton’s actions have been swift. LULAC requested that the Department of  Justice investigate Paxton's office for Voting Rights Act violations. LULAC CEO Juan Proaño and the group's national president, Roman Palomares, summed up well what is really going in their letter to the DOJ: "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.”

Today I was getting lunch, and my mom was watching the LULAC webinar on elections. I was about to go back to work when I heard Nevada Secretary of State, Cisco Aguilar say that Senator Catherine Cortez Masto has been instrumental in fighting to to keep ICE away from polling stations, by restoring them as sensitive locations.

Safe to say I did not know she was working on that, and so I ran to grab my computer and started taking notes.

I am SO glad I did, cause this call was INCREDIBLE.

First, and certainly least important, I learned that the only two Latino Secretaries of State, Nevada’s Aguilar and Arizona’s Adrian Fontes are literally cousins. Their family should be very proud cause it’s so clear they care a whole lot.

Let’s start with Aguilar, cause he spoke first.

We have not been talking about Secretary of State races a whole lot. In fact, if you asked me who was running….in any state….I’d have nothing for you. That’s a problem. They are our best line of defense against Republican bullshit before, during and after elections.

Luckily, just because we aren’t paying attention, or maybe just me, doesn’t mean they aren’t acting. They are focusing on keeping the seats we have, and gaining some seats as well.

There are 26 states with SoS elections in 2026, we have 13 states we need to hold and 13 we could flip. Find out if you live in one of those states and consider this election as important as who you vote for in Congress. Who we vote for for SoS in ‘26, determines how we are able to vote in ‘28.

But there’s also the matter of getting people to feel safe voting at all. One of the best ways to do this is for everyone who is able to sign up to be a poll worker, especially Latino, AANHPI and Black people, because it’s easier to get someone to feel safer when they see someone who looks like them in a position of authority in the room.

He also said that it’s important to communicate directly with voters and become “trusted messengers.” For him, that means making ballots available and easy to access in a variety of languages, also getting texts in that language too.

He said especially in terms of Latinos, in Nevada, 1/3 of voters are Latino, but 50% of young students are, meaning Nevada is rapidly becoming more Latino, so he’s putting a lot of time and effort into make it as easy as possible for them to start businesses and feel like the SoS is a safe and helpful resource.

Fontes echoed alot of what Aguilar said, but also focused more heavily on the legal and legislative side.

He started by saying “now is the time to remain uncomfortable.” These fights are going to be hard and painful but we can’t shy away from them. Everything that happened in the past week with Swalwell is a testament to that.

He is putting focus into making sure that all law enforcement agencies in AZ know that it is illegal for anyone with a weapon to be in a polling place. He also mentioned that Republicans tried to introduce a bill that would change that, and thanks to a whole lot of pushback, it failed. Public pressure works!

He shouted out special elections and their importance, like the recent election that kept Turning Point candidates off the Salt Water River board and how we have to highlight and support election administrators at all levels.

Finally, he elaborated on what Aguilar said about communication.

He said becoming a trusted messenger isn’t about repeating the same message over and over again till it’s believed, but rather showing that you’re trustworthy through work in other areas. Each SoS office does several things. It’s important to put as much time and energy and focus into those other parts as elections. Someone is more likely to trust the safety and security of the election process if they have easily been helped by the office before.

It’s also worth mentioning that the disinformation hasn’t changed, just the method of spreading the misleading message. And both Democracy Defender’s Fund’s Norm Eisen as well as League of Women Voter’s Celina Stewart reiterated this along with Fontes.

They are prepared for EVERYTHING.

Eisen said:

We are gonna peacefully but lawfully fight in the court of law but also in the court of public opinion to explain what it’s all about, and we are gonna win!

And Fontes explained that part of the importance of all of these illegal rulings is to help Americans understand what is legal and what is illegal, even when the president doesn’t care. I hadn’t thought of that angle before. Most people don’t know what’s in the constitution, the more people who know the more informed voters are.

Finally, I’ll leave you with this. Stewart reminded us all that Trump’s mail in voting executive order happened because he’s losing. Because what those who are fighting like hell on the ground are doing. It IS working, even if it doesn’t feel like it.

You can donate as little as $10.00 to help defend LULAC against the racist voter intimidation tactics of Ken Paxton and the current Texas leadership!! NO elected official should use law enforcement to suppress voting rights!!

Please help however you can! 🙏 Even if you can't donate, please reblog!

The US Department of State issues travel advisories regarding how safe it is for Americans to travel various countries. In a number of cases, the Level 4 “Do not travel” advisories are used to designate countries whose governments are openly hostile to the Americans such as Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Afghanistan.

So the NAACP, one of the oldest civil rights organizations in the US, issued a formal travel advisory advising African-Americans of the dangers of visiting Florida.

It says in part...

The travel advisory from the NAACP comes several days after The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) issued its own Florida advisory for Hispanics.

Last month, the group Equality Florida issued a memorandum with the title TRAVEL ADVISORY: FLORIDA MAY NOT BE A SAFE PLACE TO MOVE OR VISIT for people in the LGBTQ+ community. An excerpt...

And of course there’s Florida’s extremist war on reproductive rights.

Florida Passes Extreme 6-Week Abortion Ban

The DeSantis régime with its rubber-stamp legislature have declared war on anybody who is not a straight white male Christian fundamentalist Republican. It may not be a safe place for many Americans to visit or move to.

This is the DeSantis blueprint for the US if he becomes president.

The only way to defeat neo-fascists like DeSantis is to Vote Democratic and to never miss an election. A divided opposition is what let Hitler come to power after getting just 33.1% of the vote in the November 1932 Reichstag elections.

Fascists don’t grow out of fascism, they just keep piling it on. Look no further than Trump and Putin.