District Judge Francisco Dominguez rejected Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempt to shut down the Annunciation House charity operations in El Paso. The state judge called Paxton’s actions unfairly harsh.
Judge Dominguez questioned Paxton’s motivation in suing Annunciation House, a Catholic charity. It operates several shelters in the El Paso area that provide housing and other services for illegal aliens.
“The Attorney General’s efforts to run roughshod over Annunciation House, without regard to due process or fair play, call into question the true motivation for the Attorney General’s attempt to prevent Annunciation House from providing the humanitarian and social services that it provides,” Dominguez wrote.
“There is real and credible concern that the attempt to prevent Annunciation House from conducting business in Texas was predetermined,” Dominguez said in a four-page order.
This legal battle began last month when lawyers with Paxton’s office demanded a list of documents from Annunciation House, including records identifying every illegal alien helped by the nonprofit since the start of 2022. Annunciation House sued to block the request for some records. Paxton countersued. He asked the judge to shut down the nonprofit. Paxton said that it encourages illegal immigration by providing services to illegal aliens.
Annunciation House has operated since 1978.
Paxton claims that Annunciation House is breaking state laws against harboring and transporting illegal immigrants. It is unclear if Paxton will seek such action against other nonprofits that are thriving thanks to the Biden border crisis.
One House Democrat who represents El Paso weighed in with scaremongering.
“This is absolutely terrifying and should send a chill down the back of every person in our country,” said U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso.
“Every organization, not just in El Paso, not just in the state of Texas, but in the United States of America, needs to hear the alarm that we are sounding,” she said.
Conservatives oppose government funding to nonprofits that assist illegal aliens because it often leads to helping with human trafficking operations along the border. Supporters say in the case of a Catholic charity, the organization is doing God’s work.
Annunciation House relies on private donations, though in 2022 it received $300,000 from FEMA to reimburse costs to feed and house migrant families that had been processed and released by the Border Patrol, said Jerry Wesevich, an attorney for Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, who is representing Annunciation House.
Supporters defended the NGO, saying Annunciation House offers aid to a vulnerable population as directed by Catholic teaching.
Annunciation House’s mission is “rooted in the Gospel,” said Bishop Mark Seitz of the Catholic Diocese of El Paso.
“Its work is an example of our Catholic commitment to the poor, the Christian call to love one’s neighbor, and stepping into the breach to take action where many will not,” Seitz said.
Ruben Garcia, executive director of Annunciation House, said the nonprofit strives to meet basic human needs.
“We’re giving them places to sleep, food to eat, places to shower and clean up,” Garcia said. “This is what we are called to do: to welcome the refugees.”
Garcia mislabels illegal aliens as refugees. Almost all of those who are flooding across the southern border are coming here for economic reasons. They want jobs and to be able to better care for their families. They do not legally qualify for asylum, according to current immigration laws.
Annunciation House is about 10 blocks from the border. It argues that if its operations are illegal then so are that of others.
In a statement issued after Paxton’s lawsuit, Annunciation House said it is not the only organization that helps migrants in El Paso.
“If the work that Annunciation House conducts is illegal — so too is the work of our local hospitals, schools, and food banks,” the statement said.
That is an apples-and-oranges kind of argument but that is how dumbed down the subject of border security and illegal immigration has become.
In his order on Monday, Judge Dominguez rejected Annunciation House’s request for an injunction blocking the attorney general from accessing records. He said the next steps in the case are determined by state law on how civil lawsuits proceed. An attorney for Annunciation House, Jerry Wesevich, said he focus will be on the demand for documents, not shutting down the operation.
“We believe that the dispute begins and ends with the documents,” Wesevich said. “We’re not going to focus on the attorney general’s excuse for trying to shut down an organization that all it does is try to help people.”
We’ll see where this goes. Is the nonprofit doing God’s work or is it cashing in on a gravy train that aids and abets human trafficking?
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