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WASHINGTON — As expected, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton turned to the Texas Supreme Court on July 15 to appeal a ruling issued earlier in the month by a state judge that dismissed his effort to shut down Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, a Catholic nonprofit serving migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The state Supreme Court has yet to announce if it will accept the case.
“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 on July 15, adding that he is “appealing this case and will continue to vigorously enforce the law against any NGO engaging in criminal conduct.”
Ruben Garcia, the founder and executive director of Annunciation House, said that although the appeal was expected, it was still disappointing. “It’s very, very difficult to believe that at the end of the day, this is not all the result of a political perspective,” He told El Paso Matters, an independent news organization.
In a pair of rulings issued July 2, Judge Francisco Dominguez, a judge of the Texas 205th District Court, said the state failed to establish probable grounds to close Annunciation House and violated the shelter’s constitutional rights in its attempts to enforce a subpoena for records of migrants it has served.
The judge also described Paxton’s conduct in pursuing this case as “outrageous.”
The attorney general’s appeal of the ruling comes while he continues to ramp up efforts to stop organizations, including Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, from providing services to migrants.
In June, his office sued the Catholic Charities agency, claiming it is helping migrants illegally enter the country.
In a July 17 hearing, a district judge said he would determine by the following week if the state can depose a member of Catholic Charities, which is fighting to block the deposition and said it had already turned over more than 100 pages of documents to state investigators.
In the hearing, attorneys for Catholic Charities said there is nothing to suggest their staff is involved in smuggling and stressed that the agency has provided shelter and food at their site.
“I am glad we had a chance to present our case in court today,” said Sister Norma Pimentel, a Sister of the Missionaries of Jesus, who is the executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.
After the hearing, she told The Associated Press that “the small staff at Catholic Charities works tirelessly around the clock to serve needy people throughout our communities.”