Cecilia Castellano is a small-business owner and a relative political newcomer in South Texas.

A Democratic candidate for the Texas House of Representatives in a toss-up district, Castellano spends her days making the case for sending an outsider to Austin and against her Republican opponent , Don McLaughlin Jr., who was endorsed by Donald Trump , Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton even before his primary election.

Then, two weeks ago, law enforcement agents from Paxtons office showed up around dawn at Castellanos home outside San Antonio, armed with a search warrant and a flashlight they shined into her front window. She had answered the door in pajamas, and in the days since, she has found herself constantly checking the door.

My sons room was just a few feet away, Castellano told HuffPost, still shaken two weeks after the visit from law enforcement. Why, why, why did the peace of my home get disturbed?

The agents were investigating supposed vote harvesting committed by someone else, part of a probe that began months before Castellano had even announced her candidacy. They eventually left, taking her work cell phone with them.

Castellano wasnt alone. Across the greater San Antonio area, a local mayor, a political consultant and several elderly members of the League of United Latin American Citizens, or LULAC, a century-old civil rights group, were served similar search warrants last month, all the result of what Paxtons office said is a 2-year-old election fraud investigation.

Voting rights advocates and civil rights leaders believe this is the latest chapter in a yearslong pattern of Paxton and other state officials wielding their law enforcement powers to target racial minorities and sideline political rivals. No one has been charged in this latest investigation, but the timing and nature of the search warrant executions just weeks before Election Day in a key swing district recall other legal fights statewide, critics said.

Just this week, Paxton sued a large, traditionally Democratic county after it sent out voter registration applications. Last month, just days after a Fox News host with a history of election falsehoods told a thirdhand story about a massive line of immigrants registering to vote, Paxton announced a vague investigation into voter registration efforts. He also announced that undercover operations were ongoing throughout major metropolitan areas of Texas. Paxtons office has used lawsuits to try to shut down migrant shelters on the border and go after immigrant aid groups, and Abbotts office recently made the dubious claim that thousands of noncitizens were on Texas voter rolls.

So when word spread of Paxtons agents knocking on yet another political rivals door, the feeling of wanting to go hide under a rock is an understatement, Castellano said. She was angry with the state, laughing at the absurdity of her situation, and mortified at the thought of another encounter with law enforcement. She cant afford an attorney, she said, and her son, 14, asked why she would even continue her campaign.

Castellanos district , which includes Uvalde and touches the U.S.-Mexico border, has been represented by Democrat Tracy King for decades . But Abbott carried it by almost six points in his 2022 reelection, and The Texas Tribune reported that Republicans see the district as their best potential state House flip in November.

Now that the dust has settled from the startling raids, Castellano and others subject to the search warrants are fighting back and loudly.

The fear has gone away, she said.

An Intimidation Tactic

Paxton has a history of far-fetched election investigations and lawsuits, including as a leader in the 2020 effort to overturn President Joe Bidens win. And his Election Integrity Unit has cost Texas millions of dollars , despite handling very few cases and landing even fewer convictions .

Still, the timing and scale of last months search warrant executions were remarkable. Agents from the attorney generals office and other law enforcement officers forcibly entered the home of Manuel Medina, a well-known political consultant who counts Castellano as one of his clients. They rummaged around for hours and ultimately seized dozens of phones and computers, Medinas attorney said in a filing that convinced a judge to temporarily shield the material pending a hearing next week.

Multiple volunteers with LULAC were the subject of similar searches. Lidia Martinez, an 87-year-old, decades-long LULAC member who helps register people to vote, said she was confronted at 6 a.m. by armed police officers holding riot shields. Officers also questioned her for hours about my entire life, she recalled . At one point, Martinez said , she was also forced to wait outside in view of her neighbors, and she was eventually left without her cell phone, laptop or appointment book.

Imelda Rodriguez, 73, and Mary Ann Obregon, 80, also had their homes searched.

We did nothing wrong, Obregon, the mayor of Dilley, a rural town southwest of San Antonio, told The Washington Post . Thats whats eating at us. It is an insult.

Like Castellano, they all experienced an early morning visit from law enforcement, answering the door in their pajamas. LULAC tallied at least a dozen Latinos across three counties whose homes it said were raided during a search warrant execution.

Its an intimidation tactic that theyre using on the Latino community, Gabriel Rosales, LULACs Texas state director, told HuffPost. He said hed heard from some LULAC members who volunteer to help people register to vote that theyre worried theyd be next.