A shelter run by a charity in El Paso, Texas, is accused of “arranging and abetting” illegal immigrants to cross the border from Mexico into the United States, according to court documents.
The brazen misconduct charges stem from a lawsuit brought by state Attorney General Ken Paxton against Annunciation House, a Catholic organization that operates a small number of shelters that provide temporary housing to immigrants who entered the United States illegally. Part of it.
Paxton launched an investigation into the charity earlier this year and rejected demands for the immediate release of documents relating to its immigrant clients.
“The Annunciation House publicly describes itself as a humble organization dedicated to “just living the good news of the Gospel” and to providing “compassion and freedom” to “outcasts and foreigners.” ”, the El Paso County court ruling said in documents filed in 2016, adding:
“Annunciation staff have acknowledged multiple times in the past for assisting migrants who did not surrender to Border Patrol in the United States, and for assisting people in Mexico to cross into the United States, and will continue to do so.” Regarding future activities.
The shelter is run by Ruben Garcia, a Catholic activist who has worked with immigrants in El Paso for nearly 50 years and is considered a living saint.
But Paxton claims that his organization is involved in human smuggling, and that the group has also captured “migrants who evaded border security when crossing the Rio Grande for fear that officials would send them back to Mexico.” He accused them of “bragging” about their support.
“Annunciation House contracts with a local company once or twice a week to transport migrants in groups of approximately 15 people in vans,” court documents state.
“Annunciation House is aware that at least some of the aliens it serves are in the country illegally and are attempting to evade border security. Annunciation House’s transportation of these aliens is , the possibility of human stowaway is very high.”
Annunciation House, which boasts of having helped 500,000 migrants since its founding in 1978, receives no government grants and relies solely on private donations.
Public records show the organization has refused to turn over records on the immigrants it supports to Paxton, hasn’t filed a report with the IRS since 2003, and uses its religious designation to The company reportedly avoids disclosing financial information.
Paxton’s lawsuit seeks documentation of who the charity welcomes to “confirm the existence” of illegal immigrants sneaking into the country.
The AG has accused Annunciation House and other Catholic charities of fueling a years-long migrant crossing boom.
In addition to Annunciation House, Paxton requested records from Catholic Charities of Rio Grande, Angeles Sin Fronteras in Mission, Texas, and Team Brownsville.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott asks Paxton to investigate border nonprofits’ role in “planning and facilitating the illegal transportation of illegal immigrants across the border” during the 2022 immigration crisis requested that it be done.
At the time, El Paso was so crowded with hundreds of migrants sleeping on the city’s streets that the mayor declared a state of emergency in December 2022 and April 2023.
Faith-based organizations stepped in to help protect migrants, as they have done for decades. But they have operated with little government oversight, according to the Texas Department of State.
Annunciation House has reportedly worked with Border Patrol agents since 2014 to coordinate emergency relief for the millions of migrants flooding the southern border.
The organization also supports bus immigration to Colorado. Border Patrol agents often send migrants who pass the screening process to Annunciation House or other charitable organizations. According to the report, the problem lies with migrants who circumvent the process by entering the country illegally and end up in group shelters among those who have sought asylum and been admitted.
The Department of Homeland Security has also instructed police officers to refrain from making arrests at churches and places of worship.
As the legal battle with the AG for documents intensifies, Annunciation House has gone to court to defend its rights as a religious organization.
So far, he has won the battle against Paxton. Things got so heated that Pope Francis chimed in in an interview with CBS in May, calling the AG’s investigation of the Annunciation House “absolute madness.”
This summer, an El Paso District Court judge ruled against Paxton’s efforts to shut down the group, saying in part that the request for information violated its “free exercise of religion.” I put it down.
District Judge Francisco Dominguez called Paxton’s investigation “outrageous and unacceptable” and an attack on the Catholic Church.
An attorney for Annunciation House told the Post this week that the group is determined to continue its fight against the AG.
“Of course, we believe the AG’s actions against Annunciation House are without merit,” said Amy Waugh, the group’s lawyer, declining to comment further.
In July, Paxton’s office fired back, appealing the ruling to the Texas Supreme Court, where the case is scheduled to be heard in January.
The legal process will be closely monitored by nonprofits working with migrants in communities along Mexico’s southern border, where more than 6.7 million migrants have been “encountered” under the Biden administration, according to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee. Become.
For Garcia, 76, boss of the Annunciation House, it’s about doing God’s work and helping the poor.
This week, through his lawyer, he declined to comment, but reports say he was undaunted. “This job is my cross,” Garcia told an interviewer earlier this year. “This is what God told me to do.”
Garcia said he found his calling as a Catholic youth worker in the 1970s. He said he was inspired by Mother Teresa and was instrumental in arranging for the nun, who was born in what is now Skopje, North Macedonia, to visit El Paso in 1976 while on a speaking tour in the United States. spoke.
She encouraged him to work with “the poorest of the poor” in El Paso, who were undocumented immigrants from Mexico, he said. In 1978, the city’s parish gave him the second floor of the shabby brick building that the group currently uses as its headquarters.
When he broke this news in a letter to Mother Teresa, she wrote: “Now you’re going to announce the good news and bring people home to Jesus,” Garcia said, which inspired her to name her new nonprofit, Annunciation House.
Like Mother Teresa, who was canonized by Pope Francis in 2016, Garcia has been imbued with sainthood by her supporters. Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar, who represents El Paso, called him “a saint who still walks the earth” during a Congressional delegation to the border in February.
But critics say groups like Annunciation House are encouraging migrants to break the law by crossing borders illegally, and are fueling drug cartels that smuggle people into Mexico and Central America. claims.
“Aside from anything else, they are aiding and abetting a violation of the law,” said Ira Melman, media director for the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Federal Government for American Immigration Reform. “Obviously, Ken Paxton knows what they’re up to and knows that they’re complicit in encouraging this whole illegal immigration operation.”
