Attorney General Ken Paxton is attacking religious freedom in the entire state of Texas, according to an attorney for Annunciation House in El Paso.
Paxton, a prominent member of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, has been after the Catholic nonprofit for months now, accusing the migrant ministry of harboring illegal immigrants and smuggling them across the border.
“If religious freedom does not allow Annunciation House to obey Jesus’ primary command to love one another by providing a child a safe and warm place to sleep on a cold night, then there is no religious freedom in Texas,” Jerome Wesevich, an attorney representing the shelter, told a state district judge on Monday, June 17.
This latest twist in the battle between Paxton and the Catholic charity was reported by the Houston Chronicle and the Associated Press.
Paxton and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott have been leading an anti-immigrant crusade that pits conservative Republicans against President Joe Biden, whom they blame for the crisis at the U.S. border. The border crisis long predates the Biden administration and is primarily the result of Congressional inaction on immigration reform since the Reagan administration.
Archbishop Timothy Broglio
The Chronicle quoted Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who spoke at a news conference last Thursday, June 13: “We obviously want to respect the law, but if that liberty is restricted, then yes, our religious liberty is being restricted because we can’t put into practice the precepts of the gospel.”
The legal angle to this fight is the shelter’s refusal to turn over records Paxton’s office has demanded they produce.
Wesevich, the shelter’s attorney, called Paxton’s ploy “egregiously illegal,” arguing the attorney general needs to get a warrant if he is trying to investigate criminal activity, the Chronicle reported.
The fact that Paxton is pressing for internal documents about the operation of a Catholic charity is where the church-state violation arises.
Even the judge hearing the case has expressed doubt about Paxton’s motives.
Francisco Dominguez
State District Judge Francisco Dominguez temporarily blocked Paxton’s effort to close the shelter in March.
“The attorney general’s efforts to run roughshod over Annunciation House, without regard to due process or fair play, call into question the true motivation for the attorney general’s attempt to prevent Annunciation House from providing the humanitarian and social services that it provides,” Dominguez wrote in March. “There is a real and credible concern that the attempt to prevent Annunciation House from conducting business in Texas was predetermined.”
Dominguez is expected to issue another ruling in the case within the next two weeks, the Chronicle said.
Paxton is one of the most flamboyant figures in a state filled with Texas-size characters. Last year, he was impeached by members of his own party in the state House of Representatives but acquitted in the Senate due to pressure on senators from Donald Trump. Trump more recently has said Paxton would be on his list for consideration as U.S. attorney general if Trump is elected president in November.
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Texas attorney general sets off religious liberty alarms by attacking a Catholic charity in El Paso