The Supreme Court of Texas just heard oral argument in a case challenging a remarkably punitive and malicious attack on religious liberty by the state of Texas. That attack isn’t just dangerous on its own terms, it’s also a potential preview of President-elect Donald Trump’s second term. MAGA’s cruelty toward immigrants and its disregard for civil liberties are on full display in the Lone Star State.
Last year, on Feb. 7, lawyers from the Texas attorney general’s office showed up at Annunciation House, a religious nonprofit founded by local Catholics that provides food, shelter and clothing for migrants in El Paso, and demanded “immediate access” to its records regarding its past and current residents.
As Annunciation House explained in a brief to the Texas Supreme Court, the subpoena stated that the shelter would forfeit its right to do business in the state if it failed to comply. Annunciation House requested time to speak to a lawyer, and Texas granted it 24 hours to comply, but again threatened to close the shelter if it didn’t.
Annunciation House went to court to try to block enforcement of the subpoena and to clarify its legal obligations, according to the organization’s brief. Texas retaliated immediately; the state filed a counterclaim against the shelter seeking to terminate its corporate charter and end its right to operate in Texas.
Texas took action against Annunciation House because it suspected that the house was illegally “harboring” undocumented immigrants and conspiring to assist those without authorization in their efforts to cross the border. It also claimed that the shelter had impeded law enforcement efforts to detain illegal immigrants, and pointed to an episode that occurred more than two decades ago, in which an undocumented immigrant was shot and killed outside Annunciation House’s facilities, after running from the police.
Annunciation House disputes those claims. In its court filings, it states that it is in daily communication with federal immigration officials, that federal officials refer immigrants to stay at an Annunciation House shelter, and that without the availability of Annunciation House’s hundreds of beds, thousands more immigrant families would be homeless.