A Catholic Charity Engaged in Criminal Activity?
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing a Catholic NGO in El Paso, Texas, to strip it of its license to operate in Texas. Annunciation House apparently houses hundreds of people at a time, many of whom Paxton believes are illegals.
The drama started in early February when Paxton simply served the NGO with a request to examine some of its records and documents. The NGO refused and quickly filed for an injunction. Paxton’s counter hit the headlines this week, because in it he seeks to strip Annunciation House of its business status in Texas for failure to produce the requested documents.
By Texas law, the Attorney General has broad authority to investigate Texas corporations to ensure they are in compliance with state law, and one powerful tool in his law-enforcement arsenal is the power to compel immediate production of records. When an organization receives a written request for documents and information, a registered entity “shall immediately permit the attorney general to inspect, examine, and make copies of [its] records.” (Emphasis added). The consequence for failure to comply is swift and sure—an entity that does not comply “forfeits the right . . . to do business” in the state” and its “registration or certification of formation . . . shall be revoked or terminated.” (Emphasis added).
Paxton’s office sought and received a subpoena from a judge for a variety of the NGO’s business records, including “documents sufficient to show all services that [the NGO] provide to Aliens, whether in the United States legally or illegally,” and “all documents provided to individual Aliens as part of [the NGO’s] intake process.” Paxton asserted these documents would help confirm his suspicion that the NGO houses illegals. Paxton also explained that his office had placed Annunciation House under surveillance and observed that the NGO operates in a covert manner, which raised the concern Annunciation would not be forthcoming in its document production.
On February 7, 2024, Paxton served the NGO with a request to examine, which, as noted, would trigger mandatory and immediate compliance from the organization. According to Paxton’s court filings, his demands were reasonable. His request did not ask Annunciation House “to perform impossible feats,” such as producing documents it did not have access to, but Paxton noted at least some must be easily accessible to the NGO, and those documents needed to be turned over for examination. Additionally, Paxton’s agents told the NGO it could consult with its lawyers and present the documents the next day—February 8th.
Annunciation House said it would take 30 days for internal consultations and immediately filed suit for an injunction. Paxton’s response asserting the NGO has forfeited its business status in Texas pursuant to state code followed.
Paxton’s case is well briefed, and Texas law sounds cut and dry. Yet, Paxton’s action has caused a sensation of shock among many who are appalled that the Attorney General would target a religious-affiliated organization ministering to the downtrodden. Over the last several decades, Americans have been all but brainwashed into accepting that illegal aliens are a fact of life and even have a right to enter and demand the resources of the United States. Before we became the nation without borders that we are today under Biden, we were conditioned to accept the concept of no borders altogether. Nationhood, citizenship, and immigration laws have been taboo for a long time.
Here are Paxton’s points reframing what some would consider “humanitarian efforts,” in their true light:
First, it is a federal crime for an alien to enter the United States “at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers” or to “elude[] examination or inspection by immigration officers.” 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a). Annunciation House, however, has boasted that it houses “migrants who avoided Border Patrol when crossing the Rio Grande, out of fear that agents would send them back to Mexico.” See Priscilla Totiyapungprasert, Annunciation House helps undocumented immigrants apply for asylum El Paso Matters (Jan. 20, 2023), https://elpasomatters.org/2023/01/20/el-paso-migrants-apply-for-asylum-with-annunciation- house/, Ex. 2. Indeed, Annunciation House has publicly claimed that it “hous[es] close to 300 migrants” at a given time, “many of whom are struck in limbo because they” avoided law enforcement. Id. Annunciation House’s provision of shelter to migrants who avoided law enforcement when crossing the Rio Grande facilitates and aids and abets violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a).
“Indeed, Annunciation House has publicly claimed that it “hous[es] close to 300 migrants” at a given time, “many of whom are struck in limbo because they” avoided law enforcement.”
Second, it is illegal to “encourage[] or induce[]” aliens to “enter . . . this country in violation of federal law by concealing, [or] harboring” the aliens from “detection.” Tex. Penal Code § 20.05(a)(2); see also Berry v. Golden Light Coffee Co., 160 Tex. 128, 131 (1959) (establishing civil liability for an “unlawful conspiracy to evade and circumvent the [] laws of this state”). When Annunciation House shelters aliens whom it knows entered illegally, it is necessarily “concealing” or “harboring” them from “detection.” And Annunciation House’s publication of the fact that it actively performs this service for illegal aliens logically “encourages or induces” others to come, all in violation of Texas Penal Code § 20.05(a)(2).
Third, it is illegal to engage in human smuggling, defined to include “us[ing] a motor vehicle” to “transport an individual with the intent to conceal the individual from” law enforcement. Tex. Penal Code § 20.05(a)(1)(A); State v. Flores, 679 S.W.3d 232 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 2023) (rejecting constitutional challenges to human smuggling statute). Annunciation House appears to be engaged in the business of human smuggling. According to its own in-Court admission, Annunciation House “contracts with a local company once or twice a week to transport migrants in passenger vans in groups of approximately 15.” Annunciation House v. Abbott, Compl. ¶ 15, 3:21-cv-00178 (Aug. 4, 2021) As noted supra, Annunciation House knows that at least some of the aliens it provides services to are present illegally and are trying to avoid Border Patrol. Annunciation House’s transportation of those aliens presents a very significant likelihood of human smuggling.
Fourth, it is illegal to operate a “stash house,” defined as “knowingly” allowing “another to use any real estate” owned by a person to commit a number of other offenses, including human smuggling offenses. Tex. Penal Code § 20.07(a). Annunciation house appears to be engaged in the operation of an illegal stash house by potentially allowing others to use its real estate to engage in human smuggling.
Fifth, it is illegal to counsel aliens to commit fraud, including fraud within the asylum application process. See e.g. Tex. Pen. Code Ann. § 37.10 (“a person commits an offense if he...makes...or uses any record, document, or thing with knowledge of its falsity and with intent that it be taken as a genuine governmental record”); see also Tex. Pen. Code Ann. § 38.05 (establishing a crime where a person “with intent to hinder the arrest...of another... (1) harbors or conceals the others...[or] (2) provides or aids in providing the other with any means of avoiding arrest”). Annunciation House, however, may be violating these laws because it publicly represents that it has “workshops” to assist aliens with asylum claims, and specifically instructs them on “what situations qualif[y] for asylum and what records they could gather to establish their case.” Priscilla Totiyapungprasert, Annunciation House helps undocumented immigrants apply for asylum El Paso Matters (Jan. 20, 2023), https://elpasomatters.org/2023/01/20/el-paso-migrants- apply-for-asylum-with-annunciation-house/. It is possible that the provision of such information crosses the line from mere counseling into specific instructions on how to commit fraud.
If the allegations are true, Annunciation House is engaged in criminal activity that is undermining our society. It is wrong for any organization, but especially a religious one, to assault the common good in such a manner.