Texas AG Appeals Ruling on Nonprofit Accused of Facilitating Illegal Immigration

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks at CPAC at the Hilton Anatole in Dallas, Texas, on July 11, 2021. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Monday filed an appeal after a judge dismissed his lawsuit to shut down the nonprofit organization Annunciation House for allegedly facilitating illegal immigration.

District Court Judge Francisco Dominguez blocked the lawsuit in March, saying that Mr. Paxton “acted without regard to due process and fair play” in trying to revoke the registration of the nonprofit organization.

The judge ruled Mr. Paxton’s agency must use the state court system if it wants to investigate the Catholic nonprofit, which has been operating in El Paso, Texas, since the 1970s, offering shelter and other services to illegal immigrants.

Mr. Paxton said Monday he filed an appeal to the Texas Supreme Court against the judge’s decision.

“For too long, Annunciation House has flouted the law and contributed to the worsening illegal immigration crisis at Texas’s border with Mexico,” the Republican attorney general said in a statement.

He said the Office of the Attorney General has been investigating nonprofit organizations in Texas for their involvement in facilitating illegal immigration following Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s request.

The investigation found Annunciation House was “openly operating in violation of the law without any pretense of trying to comply with the law,” Mr. Paxton’s office said. “According to Annunciation House’s in-court admissions, 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 Epoch Times has reached out to Annunciation House for comment but has not heard back as of publication time.

Annunciation House describes itself on its website as “a volunteer organization that offers hospitality to migrants, immigrants, and refugees in El Paso,” which is “rooted in Catholic social teaching.”

The Office of the Attorney General issued a Feb. 7 “request to examine” the nonprofit’s records, including documents detailing what services it provides to immigrants who are in the country legally or illegally.

According to Mr. Paxton, Annunciation House refused to turn over documents and sued his office soon after, seeking to halt his efforts to obtain their records. On Feb. 20, Mr. Paxton announced he was asserting a counterclaim, seeking to shut down Annunciation House’s operations within the state entirely.

In his legal filings, Mr. Paxton states his initial request to inspect Annunciation House’s records “was not made in a vacuum.” Rather, he alleged state investigators had been monitoring the “unusually covert way” Annunciation House operates.

Annunciation House’s Previous Response

Annunciation House said on Feb. 23 that Mr. Paxton’s attempt to shut down the organization was “unfounded” and said that it was asking the court to decide which documents the Attorney General is allowed to access.

“There is nothing illegal about asking a Court to decide a person’s rights. The AG has now made explicit that its real goal is not records but to shut down the organization,” it said in a statement.

The organization said it has provided hospitality to “hundreds of thousands of refugees for over 46 years” and that its work was listed in the National Catholic Directory.

“Annunciation House’s work is central to the City of El Paso. El Paso has made it a point of pride to provide humane support for people coming through our community in need,” the organization stated.

“The work helps serve our local businesses, our City, and immigration officials to keep people off the streets and give them a shelter while they come through our community,” it added.

Jane J. Pruet and Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.