At least four Texas nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) operating on the U.S. southern border have come under scrutiny from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for their role in aiding illegal immigrants in recent months.
The latest action involves petitions filed by the attorney general’s office to depose officials at Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley (CCRGV) and Team Brownsville Inc.
The attorney general’s office could shut down the NGOs if it can prove they broke the law.
Earlier this month, a judge in El Paso, Texas, dismissed Mr. Paxton’s lawsuit seeking to close Annunciation House, a Catholic NGO, over allegations that it was facilitating illegal immigration.
Mr. Paxton’s office contends that it is unlawful to “encourage or induce” a person to enter or remain in the United States illegally and that concealing, harboring, or shielding a person from detection is also a violation of federal law.
In December 2022, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called for an investigation into whether NGOs may have planned and assisted illegal border crossings on both sides of the Texas–Mexico border.
NGOs traditionally have offered humanitarian aid to illegal aliens, but Mr. Abbott and other Republicans have questioned whether some organizations have crossed the line into “unlawfully orchestrating” border crossings.
Since 2021, some 10 million immigrants from around the world have entered the United States illegally. The Biden administration repealed Trump-era policies that curtailed illegal immigration, such as “Remain in Mexico,” which required asylum-seekers to stay in Mexico during immigration proceedings.
Many Democrats have said they believe immigration is positive for the United States economy and that it’s a human right.
“We need immigrants in this country,” Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) said in January during a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on immigration.
He said vegetables “would rot in the ground if they weren’t being picked by immigrants, illegal immigrants.”
“The fact is the birth rate in this country is way below replacement level,” Mr. Nadler said.
On July 17, attorneys for Catholic Charities in South Texas asked a court to block the state’s deposition request, calling it a “fishing expedition into a pond where no one has ever seen a fish.”
David Garza, a Brownsville attorney representing CCRGV, said the state failed to prove a deposition was necessary, according to court documents obtained by The Epoch Times.
“The Attorney General’s investigation of CCRGV is based solely on CCRGV’s religiously motivated provision of charitable services to asylum seekers, which do not violate any law,” he wrote.
The state’s petition lacks any evidence that would justify a deposition, according to Mr. Garza.
CCRGV is one of the more prominent NGOs operating on the Texas border. During surges in unlawful crossings, it provides shelter and food for up to 2,000 people a day.
In May, Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of CCRGV, gave a sworn statement in hopes of avoiding a formal deposition.
The NGO’s Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen is for illegal immigrants released by Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, she stated.
CCRGV contacts the sponsors of the illegal immigrants to arrange travel to their final destination, she said.
“While they wait for their bus or flight tickets to be purchased by their sponsor, asylum seekers are provided with warm meals, water, warm shower, and medical care if needed,” she wrote.
Security and staff are paid through grants from the federal government’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program, which is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to the statement.
CCRGV attorneys said a deposition was not needed because the group already had turned over more than 100 pages of documents to state investigators.
State District Judge J.R. Flores said he would likely rule on the state’s deposition request this week.
On July 8, the attorney general’s office filed another request to depose a representative of Team Brownsville in Travis County, according to court records. The attorney general’s office said the NGO’s border operation is “assisting immigrants seeking to enter the United States” and questioned the use of grant money in Mexico.
Team Brownsville performs work in Mexico and has been a part of U.S. and Mexican NGO efforts to provide humanitarian support for migrants, according to court documents.
The move to depose NGO administrators comes on the heels of a July ruling that stopped the state from shuttering Annunciation House in El Paso, which serves immigrants.
Because Annunciation House allegedly provided shelter to immigrants regardless of their legal status, Mr. Paxton said it was facilitating illegal immigration and human smuggling and operating a stash house, which is a building that hides drugs, firearms, or illegal immigrants.
District Judge Francisco X. Dominguez called the state’s accusation that the shelter encourages immigrants to enter the country illegally “outrageous and intolerable,” according to court documents.
Judge Dominguez ruled that Mr. Paxton’s attempts to enforce a subpoena for records of border crossers aided by Annunciation House in the last few years violated the shelter’s constitutional rights.
“The record before this court makes clear that the Texas Attorney General’s use of the request to examine documents from Annunciation House was a pretext to justify its harassment of Annunciation House employees and the persons seeking refuge,” the judge said in his July 1 ruling.
Mr. Paxton said that the NGO has admitted in court that “its employees enter Mexico to retrieve aliens, including aliens who have been denied entry by Border Patrol, to bring them into the United States.”
The attorney general contends that Annunciation House’s executive director admitted under oath that he would not let law enforcement into the facility, saying the presence of law enforcement would “frighten” the illegal aliens.
Neither Mr. Garza, representing CCRGV, nor attorneys for the Texas Civil Rights Project, representing Team Brownsville, responded to a request for comment from The Epoch Times.
