Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a written statement that the
legal action was intended to revoke the license of Annunciation
House to operate in Texas as a non-governmental organization, or
NGO.
"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.
Annunciation House said that Paxton's goal in filing the
lawsuit, which came after it denied him immediate access to its
records, was to use the document dispute as an excuse to shut
down the nonprofit.
"The attorney general's illegal, immoral and anti-faith position
to shut down Annunciation House is unfounded," the group said in
a written statement. Paxton filed the lawsuit on Tuesday in El
Paso County District Court.
Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Hope Border Institute,
a similar organization, said that he supported 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 said in the lawsuit that Annunciation House and publicly
claimed to house some 300 migrants at a time who they knew were
avoiding detection by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
The attorney general said the nonprofit was engaging in human
smuggling by transporting migrants in vans and placing them in
so-called stash houses.
Texas is building a military base camp in the city of Eagle Pass
near the U.S.-Mexico border, part of a broader effort by the
state's Republican Governor Greg Abbott to deter illegal
immigration.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Michael Perry and Sonali
Paul)
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