United States – The Texas Attorney General today sued a Catholic nonprofit that offers housing and assistance to migrants, alleging that the organization abet and conceals illegals, aids and abets human smuggling, and runs a stash house.
According to Attorney General Ken Paxton via a written statement, the legal action is aimed at revoking the license of Annunciation House to operate in the State of Texas as a non-governmental organization (NGO).
License Revocation Pursuit
“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.
“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,” said the Republican attorney general.
Paxton filed the case, according to Annunciation House, because it would not grant him instant access to its data. Paxton intended to use the document disagreement as a pretext to close the nonprofit, Reuters reported.
Annunciation House’s Response
In a written statement, the organization stated, “The attorney general’s illegal, immoral, and anti-faith position to shut down Annunciation House is unfounded.” Tuesday was the day that Paxton filed the case in El Paso County District Court.
Support from Similar Organizations
An analogous organization’s executive director, Dylan Corbett, declared his support for Annunciation House.
“The actions of the Texas Attorney General are intended to intimidate and criminalize humanitarian aid workers and are an affront to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the commandment to love one’s neighbor,” Corbett said on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.
Paxton alleged in her lawsuit that Annunciation House which is housed purportedly provides housing for over 300 migrants a time that they knew were evading detection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents, as reported by Reuters.
The attorney general alleged that the NGO was actually in the business of smuggling humans by moving migrants in vans and hiding them in so-called stash houses.
Texas Military Base Camp
The construction of a military base camp in Eagle Pass city by Texas is one of the many actions taken by the Republican Governor of the state, Greg Abbott, to prevent illegal immigration from the US-Mexico border.