NEWS: Congressman Greg Casar Joins Castro, Escobar, & Colleagues in Calling for DOJ to Investigate State-Sponsored Voter Intimidation and Suppression in Texas
AUSTIN, Texas – Today, Congressman Greg Casar(TX-35) joined Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20) and Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16), along with eight other colleagues in the Texas Congressional Delegation, in a letter urging Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice to investigate recent incidents of voter suppression and intimidation by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and Governor Greg Abbott.
The letter was additionally signed by Reps. Lloyd Doggett (TX-37), Jasmine Crockett (TX-30), Al Green (TX-09), Lizzie Fletcher (TX-07), Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), Marc Veasey (TX-33), Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34), and Colin Allred (TX-32).
“We write to you with urgent concerns over recent actions undertaken at the direction of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to raid the homes of activists, volunteers, and political operatives in South Texas and the San Antonio area and Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s efforts to remove thousands of individuals from voter rolls with little transparency. We are concerned that these actions are intended to intimidate American citizens, in particular Latinos and members of minority communities, from exercising their right to vote through political persecution or deny them that right altogether. We request that the Department investigate these actions, including for violations of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act, and take any necessary action to prevent further interference with the rights of voters in the state of Texas,” the members wrote.
“At the same time as these concerning actions by AG Paxton, Governor Abbott has pursued the removal of thousands of individuals from voter rolls in Texas, including over 6,500 purported “noncitizens.” There is little to no transparency in how Governor Abbott has assessed these individuals to be “potential noncitizens,” and we fear these decisions may be made on the basis of those individuals’ perceived race or ethnicity and may deny American citizens their right to vote,” the members concluded.
The full text of today’s letter can be found here.
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Congressman Greg Casar represents Texas’s 35th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which runs down I-35 from East Austin to Hays County to the West Side of San Antonio. A labor organizer and son of Mexican immigrants, Casar serves as the Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus for the 118th Congress. He also serves on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the Committee on Agriculture.