A family of migrants is dropped off by a transport contractor for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection at a shelter run by Annunciation House in downtown El Paso, Texas, Dec. 13, 2022. A state judge blocked the Texas attorney general's demands for the records of Annunciation House March 11, 2024, citing concerns the state had a "predetermined" motive to shut down the Catholic nonprofit serving migrants. (OSV News photo/Ivan Pierre Aguirre, ReutersAA state judge March 11 temporarily blocked the Texas attorney general's demands for the records of Annunciation House, citing concerns the state had a "predetermined" motive to shut down the Catholic nonprofit serving migrants.
District Judge Francisco Dominguez in El Paso issued an order blocking Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's subpoena of Annunciation House, indicating both that Paxton's effort seemed politically motivated and that it must go through appropriate due process in the state court system.
"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 a real and credible concern that the attempt to prevent Annunciation House from conducting business in Texas was predetermined."
Paxton in February filed suit in an attempt to shut down Annunciation House, accusing it of "human smuggling," in a move denounced by Catholic immigration advocates, including El Paso Bishop Mark J. Seitz.
Paxton's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from OSV News.
In a statement, Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, which is representing Annunciation House, said the court decided "that an orderly process would be followed to decide what documents are due to the Attorney General under law, and the Attorney General would not be able to enforce his subpoena without court oversight."
Jerome Wesevich, TRLA lead counsel on the case, said, "We're very pleased with the Court's ruling regarding Annunciation House."
"The Court demands that standard civil procedures be followed, which will mean a fair and orderly process for determining what documents the law allows the Attorney General to see," he said. "Annunciation House needs to collect sensitive information, including health information, concerning its guests, and it is imperative for the safety and well-being of the community that the releasing of this sensitive information be handled with care and the law in mind."
Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House, told reporters at a Feb. 23 press conference that the nonprofit has been providing basic resources like food, shelter and water to migrants and refugees who arrive at the border for nearly 50 years in consultation with the U.S. Border Patrol.
"There are individuals who have decided that that should be illegal," he said.
Annunciation House operates several shelters in the El Paso area, helping migrants and refugees with food, housing and other assistance, as well as providing information about how to fill out the required legal documents to claim asylum in the U.S.
— Kate Scanlon, OSV News
Catholics must have religious liberty to 'meet migrants' basic human needs
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Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Ind., is pictured during World Youth Day in Lisbon, Portugal, Aug. 2, 2023. Bishop Rhoades is chair of the U.S. bishops' religious liberty committee. (OSV News photo/Bob Roller)WASHINGTON — The ability of Catholic and other faith-based groups to "meet migrants' basic human needs" at the U.S.-Mexico border is a religious liberty issue and must be defended, U.S. bishops said in recent statements.In a Feb. 26 statement issued in response to a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in an attempt to shut down Annunciation House, a Catholic nonprofit in El Paso serving migrants, Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee for Religious Liberty, expressed solidarity with faith-driven ministries to migrants.
"It is hard to imagine what our country would look like without the good works that people of faith carry out in the public square," Bishop Rhoades said. "For this, we can thank our strong tradition of religious liberty, which allows us to live out our faith in full."
Paxton's suit targeting El Paso's Annunciation House comes as some Republicans have grown increasingly hostile toward nongovernmental organizations, particularly Catholic ones, that provide resources such as food and shelter to migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Bishop Rhoades said that as "the tragic situation along our border with Mexico increasingly poses challenges for American communities and vulnerable persons alike, we must especially preserve the freedom of Catholics and other people of faith to assist their communities and meet migrants' basic human needs."
Paxton's office alleged Annunciation House's efforts amount to "facilitating illegal entry to the United States" and "human smuggling."
"The chaos at the southern border has created an environment where NGOs, funded with taxpayer money from the Biden Administration, facilitate astonishing horrors including human smuggling," Paxton said in a statement. "While the federal government perpetuates the lawlessness destroying this country, my office works day in and day out to hold these organizations responsible for worsening illegal immigration."
Catholic and local leaders in El Paso condemned that effort, including the city's Bishop Mark J. Seitz, who pledged his diocese and the wider church will "vigorously defend the freedom of people of faith and goodwill to put deeply held religious convictions into practice" and "will not be intimidated in our work to serve Jesus Christ in our sisters and brothers fleeing danger and seeking to keep their families together."
The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops said in a Feb. 23 statement that the state's bishops "join Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso in expressing solidarity with ministry volunteers and people of faith who seek only to serve vulnerable migrants as our nation and state continue to pursue failed migration and border security policies."
"Our border ministries are intended to be a stabilizing presence that protects both citizens and migrants," their statement said. "The Catholic Church in Texas remains committed to praying and working for a secure border, to protect the vulnerable and for just immigration solutions to protect all human life."
Bishop Rhoades commended the Texas bishops for "expressing solidarity with those seeking simply to fulfill the fundamental biblical call: 'whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.'"
— Kate Scanlon, OSV News
