Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued Annunciation House to revoke their registration to operate in Texas, because it helps migrants.
Annunciation House is a Catholic charity in the city of El Paso that has provided hospitality to hundreds of thousands of refugees over the past forty-six years. It provides essential services such as food and water, a place to shower and sleep without regard to a person's immigration or citizenship status.
The State of Texas claims that the organization is engaged in legal violations such as "facilitating illegal entry to the United States, alien harboring, human smuggling, and operating a stash house." It has demanded the charity's records, but Annunciation House has refused to comply until a court rules on which documents it must legally provide.
According to Paxton, “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. 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.”
Texas is indeed being overwhelmed with migrants, but it has also heavily politicized the issue without recognizing its root causes or considered what compels people to leave their homes and risk their lives to make it to someplace they believe is better.
Paxton may have a hard time proving that the Annunciation House has violated the law. Offering shelter to migrants is not actually illegal in Texas. To be considered as operating a stash house, one must be actively involved in hiding someone from authorities. The law is intended for human traffickers, not a charity helping the needy.
This month Texas increased the penalty for operating a stash house from a misdemeanor to a felony. In March, a new law, which is being contested, will make it a crime to cross the Texas border with Mexico without authorization.
The Catholic Church has made its own contributions to the migrant crisis by supporting right-wing dictatorships and discouraging family planning. The overpopulation in many Catholic countries is a leading cause of the migration, yet the Church does not recognize its own responsibility in the matter.
The single greatest cause of migration from Latin America is U.S. foreign policy and the CIA's international drug trade. The U.S. has suppressed democracy in the region for nearly 200 years and continues to install governments that oppress their people. Vicious drug gangs make many regions unsafe and give tens of millions of people little choice but to leave for someplace better.
As long as the U.S. sustains its predatory policies, the migrants will continue to cross the border. Destroying a small Catholic charity will certainly not reduce the number of migrants and will only worsen the situation by forcing more migrants onto the streets and into desperation.