WASHINGTON — The nation’s oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization, the League of United Latin American Citizens, is now a house divided. A judge in Texas has put an election for LULAC’s national leadership on hold after hearing allegations of a “fraudulent” scheme to stack the voting. 

What You Need To Know

  • A judge halted the LULAC's elections after some LULAC members filed a lawsuit

  • It alleges the pro-statehood New Progressive Party in Puerto Rico and certain LULAC insiders created scores of chapters known as councils in Puerto Rico to take part in the voting 

  • LULAC has advocated for the Latino community since its founding in Corpus Christi in 1929

Whether it is helping the victims of the Uvalde school shooting, filing lawsuits over voting rights or representing undocumented immigrants, LULAC has advocated for the Latino community since its founding in Corpus Christi in 1929. But now, LULAC is embroiled in infighting. 

“Everyone regrets that there wasn’t an election, but that’s better than having an unfair election,” said Jeff Tillotson, a partner with the law firm Tillotson Johnson & Patton. 

A Dallas judge halted the organization’s elections after some LULAC members filed a lawsuit. It alleges the pro-statehood New Progressive Party in Puerto Rico and certain LULAC insiders created scores of chapters known as councils in Puerto Rico to take part in the voting and influence the outcome at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“Very close to the election suspiciously, suddenly, hundreds of councils were being formed in Puerto Rico. Through some diligence, it was determined that they were basically being funded by the same outside political organization. One important thing about LULAC is it is a nonpartisan organization,” Tillotson, who represents the plaintiffs’ the lawsuit, said. 

The lawsuit claims the goal was to replace current LULAC national president Domingo Garcia, a Dallas attorney, with Juan Carlos Lizardi as part of a campaign to endorse statehood for Puerto Rico.

“The record is proof for themselves. How do you go from basically for 20 years only having 38 councils, to 350 councils, 1,400 delegates?” Garcia said. “This has never happened. So it definitely raised a lot of red flags, and that’s why we have investigations.” 

Lizardi declined Spectrum News’ request for an interview to respond to the allegations, but on Facebook he said in part, “A strategy was used to influence not having an election by discouraging or preventing members from voting.” 

“I look forward to working with all of you on all of the issues we need to fight, especially to guarantee that voter suppression does not continue inside or outside of our beloved organization,” he said.

Joey Cardenas, a steering committee member for Lizardi’s candidacy, in a statement to Spectrum News, argued LULAC’s current leaders had the authority under its rules to prevent any problems with the election. 

“The recent events that unfolded within LULAC due to the cancellation of National elections in Puerto Rico in response to a last minute (temporary restraining order), could have been mitigated by taking preventative measures that would have allowed for national elections to take place in compliance with the LULAC constitution, its protocols and best practices,” Cardenas, a former LULAC Texas State Director and former LULAC National Vice President for Young Adults, wrote. 

So should this internal conflict shake faith in the nation’s largest and oldest Latino civil rights organization? Garcia said it should not.

“Yes, there’s politics in the organization. There’s politics in families and in churches. But at the end, we unite as a family, and we move forward,” Garcia said.

The temporary restraining order preventing the election expires on Aug. 26 when the judge will hold a hearing to decide on what happens next.