Texas Republican AG Targets Second Catholic Organization that Aids Migrants
Ken Paxton tells a court he’s investigating allegations that Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley is illegally “smuggling” migrants into the U.S. The agency denies the claims.
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By Gary Gately
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, already battling to shut down a 46-year-old Catholic shelter network in El Paso, is now investigating what he calls criminal “smuggling” and harboring of migrants by Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.
“We’re looking into, specifically, several criminal, possible criminal violations — smuggling persons and bringing in and harboring certain aliens,” Matthew Kennedy, an attorney with the Republican AG’s office, testified at a court hearing this week.
Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, one of the largest migrant aid agencies in Texas, denied the claims as the product of a baseless “fishing expedition” and asked a judge to block the AG’s office from forcing a Catholic Charities official to answer a prosecutor’s questions at a deposition.
The agency noted that it has also provided 100 pages of documents and said Paxton’s office has no legal right to depose anyone from Catholic Charities.
Hidalgo County District Court Judge J.R. Flores said he would rule on the AG’s Office request as early as next week.
Kennedy pointed to a February 2022 letter to Catholic Charities’ national office written by Texas state Senator U.S. Rep. Lance Gooden in which the Republican stated: “I am troubled by the growing role NGOs have in fueling the drastic increase in illegal immigration across our southern border and throughout the country…. Regardless of Catholic Charities’ motivation behind aiding and abetting aliens, this does not grant them the right to violate federal law and regulation. It is irresponsible for Catholic Charities to fuel illegal immigration by encouraging, transporting, and harboring aliens to come to, enter, or reside in the United States.”
At the time, Gooden wrote letters making the same accusations against Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and Jewish Family Services, both of which aid migrants.
Kennedy also cited unsubstantiated allegations by Texas Republican Governor Gregg Abbott that NGOs illegally transport migrants across the border.
But William Powell, an attorney with the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy at the Georgetown University Law Center and a member of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande’s legal team, said Paxton’s office produced no evidence to support the assertions by either Abbott or Gooden.
Catholic Charities argued that Texas is violating its right to religious freedom under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and that the AG’s office has exceeded its authority under state law and the U.S. Constitution.
Republicans, including Paxton and Abbott, along with some conservative Catholics, have increasingly targeted Catholic Charities and other NGOs that aid migrants, saying they knowingly enable illegal immigrants to cross the southern border and illegally harbor them.
The Texas GOP leaders claim the NGOs bankroll illegal immigration with taxpayers’ money.
Meanwhile, Paxton said this week that he will appeal to the Texas Supreme Court a judge’s dismissal of his office’s lawsuit seeking to shut down the Catholic migrant shelter network Annunciation House in El Paso. All nine members of the state’s Supreme Court are White Republicans.
“For too long, Annunciation House has flouted the law and contributed to the worsening illegal immigration crisis at Texas’s border with Mexico,” Paxton said in a statement. “I am appealing this case and will continue to vigorously enforce the law against any NGO engaging in criminal conduct.”
Paxton’s request that the state Supreme Court hear his appeal came after El Paso County District Court Judge District Francisco X. Dominguez rejected his attempt to shut down Annunciation House. The judge called the AG’s broad demands for records from the migrant shelter network an “outrageous and intolerable” form of politically motivated “harassment” that exceeded his legal authority.
Catholic leaders throughout the country have denounced Paxton’s attempt to shut down Annunciation House, saying it is doing Jesus’ work by caring for the poor and vulnerable, many of them seeking asylum. The network of shelters, the first of which opened in 1978, has served hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees.
U.S. bishops, many other Catholic leaders, El Paso elected officials and more than 150 organizations signed on to a Refugees International open letter in February condemning Paxton’s “politically motivated attack against Annunciation House.”
“Annunciation House,” the letter said, “is rooted in Catholic social teaching and is a voice for justice and compassion, especially for the most marginalized of our society.”
In a May “CBS News 60 Minutes” interview, Pope Francis labeled as “madness” Paxton’s relentless efforts to shut down Annunciation House — located about 630 miles northwest of the Rio Grande Valley Catholic Charities headquarters in San Juan, Texas.
Texas has become a flashpoint in the debate over immigration, one of the biggest issues in the U.S. presidential election, and much of the attention on the nation’s border policies has focused on the state in recent months.
It stands out for its particularly aggressive policies targeting migrants. Abbott has declared the flood of migrants across the border an “invasion.” He has responded by, among other things, erecting razor wire along the Rio Grande to deter migrants from entering the U.S. even after the federal government said it impedes border agents from apprehending people who cross the river. Migrants are shot with pepper balls, and some have died in the Texas heat at the border
In March, a divided federal appeals court issued an order blocking enforcement of a sweeping Texas law that would have empowered state law enforcement officers to stop, arrest and bring criminal charges against migrants suspected of crossing the border illegally. The law also would have allowed state judges to issue deportation orders against suspected violators. Enforcement of immigration law is the purview of the federal government, not the states.
Conservative Republicans have painted immigrants with a broad brush, saying they’re behind a surge in crime. In reality, however, recent research refutes these claims, including these studies from Stanford University and the Brennan Center for Justice in New York.
Former President Donald Trump has gone so far as to assert that President Joe Biden’s border policies amounted to a “conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America” by allowing millions of migrants to illegally enter the U.S. from Mexico in hopes that they would vote for Democrats. Trump has offered no evidence to support his claim.
Trump and his running mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, who is Catholic, say all undocumented immigrants should be deported.
That stands in sharp contrast to Pope Francis' calls for viewing the encounter with migrants as “an encounter with Christ” and treating desperate migrants humanely. The senator’s positions also sharply contrast with the U.S. bishop’s support for immigration reform that would include a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Arrests for illegal crossings at the Mexican border reached a record high of nearly 250,000 in December. But they have slowed dramatically since, plunging to about 83,500 in June, the lowest during Biden’s presidency after he temporarily suspended asylum, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Few question the fact that America has a major immigration crisis at its southern border.
A Gallup poll released last week found that the number of U.S. adults who want to see immigration decreased has risen from 41% a year ago to 55%, marking the first time since 2005 that a majority of American adults want there to be less immigration. The figure is also the largest percentage holding that view since a 58% reading in 2001.
And in a Pew Research Center survey released in February, 8 in 10 Americans said the government is doing a poor job handling the arrival of migrants at the border. Just 18% said the U.S. government is doing a good job handling the surge in migrants.
The survey found that 89% of Republicans said the government is doing a poor job and has been since Biden became president, while 73% of Democrats also gave the government negative ratings, the highest share during Biden’s presidency.
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