Annunciation House targeted by Texas AG in latest escalation of state immigration enforcement

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking to shut down Annunciation House, an El Paso Catholic nonprofit organization that has provided shelter and other services to migrants and immigrants for decades. “The chaos at the southern border has created an environment where (nongovernmental organizations), funded with taxpayer money from the Biden administration, facilitate astonishing horrors including human smuggling,” Paxton said in a statement Tuesday. “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.” Ruben Garcia, the founder and director of Annunciation House, denounced the attorney general’s action in a statement Tuesday night. “The attorney general’s illegal, immoral and anti-faith position to shut down Annunciation House is unfounded,” Garcia said.

He had raised concerns last year that Texas’ crackdown on immigration could imperil the work of church-based groups on immigration. “The church is at risk because the volunteers are asking themselves, ‘If I feed someone who’s unprocessed, if I give someone a blanket who’s unprocessed, if I help them get off the street, am I liable to be prosecuted for that?’” Garcia told a bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators visiting El Paso in January 2023. “Shame on us, that on this day, this is even being brought up in the United States.” On Tuesday, Garcia said his organization provides a vital service, and warned that other organizations could be at risk of actions by Paxton. “Annunciation House has kept hundreds of thousands of refugees coming through our city off the streets and given them food. 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,” he said. “If the work that Annunciation House conducts is illegal, so too is the work of our local hospitals, schools, and food banks.” This month’s actions mark the latest escalation by Texas state officials to assert control over immigration issues along the U.S.-Mexico border. In court filings, the Texas Attorney General’s Office says Annunciation House also provides assistance to people who enter the country and evade Border Patrol officials, citing a 2023 El Paso Matters article about the nonprofit’s efforts to help migrants apply for asylum.