HOUSTON — The U.S. Justice Department on Monday rejected Texas’ new voter-identification law, saying it could disproportionately harm Latinos under the federal Voting Rights Act.

“Hispanics disproportionately lack either a driver’s license or a personal identification card,” Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, wrote in a letter to Keith Ingram, director of elections for the Texas Secretary of State.

Perez noted that state data showed nearly 800,000 people do not have driver’s licenses or identification cards from the state Department of Public Safety. More than 38 percent of those lacking the ID were Latino, he said.

Texas was among eight states that passed voter-ID laws last year. A judge blocked a similar law Monday in Wisconsin, and the Justice Department blocked another in South Carolina in December.

In Pennsylvania on Monday, the Republican-controlled House debated a photo-ID measure that, if approved, Republican Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to sign.

As a result of the Justice Department’s opposition, the voter-ID law will not be in effect during the May 29 primary election, according to a statement from Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade.