A reputable conservative Christian law firm is going to bat for a Catholic charity accused of “systemic criminal conduct” by “planning and facilitating” illegal immigration from Mexico into the United States.
Last Tuesday, First Liberty Institute filed a lawsuit through the firm Gibson Dunn against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, arguing that the “religious exercise” of Annunciation House is protected by the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act (TRFRA).
Paxton has been investigating Annunciation House over the last year for its role in illegal border crossings from Mexico into the U.S., and has filed a 76-page brief against the Catholic charity in the Texas Supreme Court. Annunciation House’s headquarters are located some ten blocks from the US/Mexico border.
The state Supreme Court has scheduled oral arguments for January 13 in an appeal brought by Paxton after District Judge Francisco Dominguez in July dismissed what he called “outrageous and intolerable” actions by the attorney general’s office in seeking to stop Annunciation House from operating in Texas.
Religious Liberty
Annunciation House offers “not one scintilla of evidence” to demonstrate that the attorney general’s service of a Request to Examine (RTE) “had anything to do with that organization’s Catholic affiliation — because it didn’t,” Paxton states in his filing.
“Moreover, Annunciation House failed to submit evidence showing how its religious practice is substantially burdened by having to comply with Texas’s ban on alien-harboring and operating a stash house,” the brief argues. There are “no grounds to rule that OAG discriminated against Annunciation House based on its religious affiliation.”
However, in its friend-of-the-court brief, First Liberty Institute, which describes itself as the largest nonprofit organization in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom, said that the OAG’s intervention “would impede Annunciation House’s ability to keep Christ’s command to practice charity.”
“Religious organizations like Annunciation House must be afforded the full protection of the State’s laws,” said First Liberty President Kelly Shackelford. “We want to make sure the Texas Supreme Court understands the importance of applying TRFRA to all religious ministries that serve our communities.”
As First Liberty Executive Senior Counsel Hiram Sasser told The Stream, “We are confused about the stances being taken by the State of Texas before the Texas Supreme Court in now two cases. Last month, a lawyer for the State argued that the Texas Constitutional Amendment to protect churches from Covid-style shutdowns does not prohibit the State from banning churches from singing and having communion. Now the State is trying to take down a Catholic charity and ignoring religious liberty protections in Texas law.”
According to First Liberty’s amicus brief, “prohibiting Annunciation House from operating in Texas imposes just such an impermissible burden on its free exercise of religion.”
The brief contends that Annunciation House’s “spiritual calling is to provide shelter to the poor, namely refugees” and that its “‘exercise of religion’ is its provision of food, clothing, and shelter for those who have nowhere else to turn.”
Catholic Charity or Criminal Enterprise?
Citing the encyclicals of Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI, First Liberty Institute argues that such acts of charitable service are “rooted in Catholic values,” and are just as vital as “the Sacraments and the Word.”
The brief further argued that the charity is listed in the Official Catholic Directory of organizations affiliated with the Catholic Diocese of El Paso because Annunciation House “expresses the Catholic faith through its service to immigrants.”
But Paxton’s office said the charity “operates as a criminal enterprise” and has not only admitted concealing illegal migrants in its shelters from law enforcement, but even bragged on its website that it houses people who have crossed the border with “help from a coyote,” The Stream reported in November.
In May, Paxton said his office had “obtained sworn testimony indicating that Annunciation House’s operations are designed to facilitate illegal border crossings and to conceal illegally present aliens from law enforcement.”
The charity refused to release documents Paxton requested. Instead, it sued the his office.
Epicenter of Smuggling Migrants
A court filing by the Paxton’s office states that Annunciation House has been at “the epicenter” of smuggling illegal immigrants across the border, “systemically violating multiple criminal statutes” by using two buildings owned by the Catholic diocese of El Paso, which it later “gifted” to the charity for $10 each.
According to the court filing, the Catholic Church includes Annunciation House in the national Catholic directory, which provides it with tax-exempt status.
“Annunciation House contracts with a local company once or twice a week to transport migrants in passenger vans in groups of approximately 15,” the court filing states. The charity’s “transportation of those aliens presents a very significant likelihood of human smuggling.”
Biden Administration Funding Illegal Immigration
Catholic Charities USA (CCU), the largest social safety net provider in the country outside the federal government, has received nearly $1 billion from taxpayers via the Biden administration to facilitate illegal immigration, The Stream reported in September.
Financial documents show that government grants for the domestic charity wing of the USCCB nearly quadrupled after Biden took office in 2021, with most of the funds directed to the charity’s immigration services — especially its operations near the southern U.S. border.
Earlier this month, Cardinal Roger Mahony, the former archbishop of Los Angeles who paid nearly $10 million to settle clergy sex abuse cases, urged his fellow prelates to engage in civil disobedience against President-Elect Donald Trump’s plans to deport illegal immigrants en masse after he retakes office.
The senior U.S. cardinal, who was barred from public ministry for protecting predator priests, said “the Church will not reveal any records” of illegal parishioners’ private information including “residence and other personal information.”
“The Church will remain vigilant if it appears that Border Patrol or other immigration authorities are making themselves present near our churches and other Church program facilities,” Mahony told Catholic media outlet Crux in an interview published on Nov. 26.
Bishops Threaten to Resist Trump’s Mass Deportations
Other U.S. bishops have expressed strong views on resisting the mass deportations to be led by Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan, a committed Catholic who served in Trump’s first administration as the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“Many people thought that Hittler (sic) Era is was (sic) something of the past,” Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio, Texas, posted on X in early December.
“There are many people in fear. I have met with them. Their stories are meant to build up. Though, they are aware of the persecution against them. We want to assure people of their rights. Migrants and refugees need to know their rights in these turbulent times. We accompany you,” Garcia-Siller wrote.
At the plenary assembly of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, in November, USCCB president Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio stated that the bishops would “never backpedal or renounce” their mandate to protect human dignity “from womb to tomb,” The Stream reported.
“We certainly do not encourage illegal immigration,” the archbishop noted, “but we will all have to stand before the throne of grace and hear the Lord ask us if we saw Him in the hungry, thirsty, naked, homeless, stranger, or sick, and responded to His needs.”
Dr Jules Gomes, (BA, BD, MTh, PhD), has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.
The post Christian Organization Defends Catholic Charity Accused of Facilitating Illegal Migration appeared first on The Stream.
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