Texas AG Targets Nonprofit Kingpin of the Border Crisis

I am not making any of this up.  We’ve all heard about the “border crisis.”  Thousands of people flooding through the southern border every week or month, calls for impeachment, and unabashed demands that Congress do nothing so Trump can campaign on the issue later this spring and summer.  Well, in the midst of all that, Texas AG Ken Paxton — young enough to be the next Governor and a future presidential candidate himself — identified the kingpin of it all and is taking decisive action to solve the crisis.  That kingpin, it turns out, is Annunciation House, a religious nonprofit in El Paso:

Annunciation House is a volunteer organization that offers hospitality to migrants, immigrants, and refugees in El Paso, Texas. Rooted in Catholic social teaching, the volunteers of Annunciation House live simply and in community, in the same houses as the guests we serve, who are mostly from Mexico and Central America. We also participate in advocacy and education around immigration issues. We seek to be a voice for justice and compassion, especially on behalf of the most marginalized of our society.

From its beginnings, Annunciation House has sought to serve the poorest of the poor in our El Paso-Juarez border community. Many of the most vulnerable here are people from south of the border, who can’t receive services from most established social agencies. They can be identified by their immigration status and the poverty, injustice, and oppression that are so much a part of their reality. These migrants and refugees have become the primary constituency of Annunciation House.

I checked Guidestar and found that the organization pulled in $173,000 according to its 990.  The latest available is from 2003, so that could be proof of the organization’s secret efforts to orchestrate the whole border crisis.  Anyway, when the AG got wind of Annunciation House’ feeding and housing of people, via a fairly innocuous article describing its efforts to assist asylum seekers, he opened an investigation and demanded access to the organization’s entire records.  Annunciation filed suit to block what it considered harassment and the AG responded with a counter-claim (attaching and citing the article as the only evidence) to revoke the organization’s Texas business license.  Naturally, the AG issued a grand public announcement touting his Mr. America credentials and explaining how Biden is the Wizard of Oz behind it all.  Here are what seem like shouted allegations from the complaint

First, it is a federal crime for an alien to enter the United States “at any time or place other than as designated by immigration officers” or to “elude[] examination or inspection by immigration officers.” 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a). Annunciation House, however, has boasted that it houses “migrants who avoided Border Patrol when crossing the Rio Grande, out of fear that agents would send them back to Mexico.” See Priscilla Totiyapungprasert, Annunciation House helps undocumented immigrants apply for asylum El Paso Matters (Jan. 20, 2023), https://elpasomatters.org/2023/01/20/el-paso-migrants-apply-for-asylum-with-annunciationhouse/, Ex. 2. Indeed, Annunciation House has publicly claimed that it “hous[es] close to 300 migrants” at a given time, “many of whom are struck in limbo because they” avoided law enforcement. Id. Annunciation House’s provision of shelter to migrants who avoided law enforcement when crossing the Rio Grande facilitates and aids and abets violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a).

Second, it is illegal to “encourage[] or induce[]” aliens to “enter . . . this country in violation of federal law by concealing, [or] harboring” the aliens from “detection.” Tex. Penal Code § 20.05(a)(2); see also Berry v. Golden Light Coffee Co., 160 Tex. 128, 131 (1959) (establishing civil liability for an “unlawful conspiracy to evade and circumvent the [] laws of this state”). When Annunciation House shelters aliens whom it knows entered illegally, it is necessarily “concealing” or “harboring” them from “detection.” And Annunciation House’s publication of the fact that it actively performs this service for illegal aliens logically “encourages or induces” others to come, all in violation of Texas Penal Code § 20.05(a)(2). 

Third, it is illegal to engage in human smuggling, defined to include “us[ing] a motor vehicle” to “transport an individual with the intent to conceal the individual from” law enforcement. Tex. Penal Code § 20.05(a)(1)(A); State v. Flores, 679 S.W.3d 232 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 2023) (rejecting constitutional challenges to human smuggling statute). Annunciation House appears to be engaged in the business of human smuggling. According to its own in-Court admission, Annunciation House “contracts with a local company once or twice a week to transport migrants in passenger vans in groups of approximately 15.” Annunciation House v. Abbott, Compl. ¶ 15, 3:21-cv-00178 (Aug. 4, 2021) As noted supra, Annunciation House knows that at least some of the aliens it provides services to are present illegally and are trying to avoid Border Patrol. Annunciation House’s transportation of those aliens presents a very significant likelihood of human smuggling. 18.

Fourth, it is illegal to operate a “stash house,” defined as “knowingly” allowing “another to use any real estate” owned by a person to commit a number of other offenses, including human smuggling offenses. Tex. Penal Code § 20.07(a). Annunciation house appears to be engaged in the operation of an illegal stash house by potentially allowing others to use its real estate to engage in human smuggling.

Fifth, it is illegal to counsel aliens to commit fraud, including fraud within the asylum application process. See e.g. Tex. Pen. Code Ann. § 37.10 (“a person commits an offense if he…makes…or uses any record, document, or thing with knowledge of its falsity and with intent that it be taken as a genuine governmental record”); see also Tex. Pen. Code Ann. § 38.05 (establishing a crime where a person “with intent to hinder the arrest…of another… (1) harbors or conceals the others…[or] (2) provides or aids in providing the other with any means of avoiding arrest”). Annunciation House, however, may be violating these laws because it publicly represents that it has “workshops” to assist aliens with asylum claims, and specifically instructs them on “what situations qualif[y] for asylum and what records they could gather to establish their case.” Priscilla Totiyapungprasert, Annunciation House helps undocumented immigrants apply for asylum El Paso Matters (Jan. 20, 2023), https://elpasomatters.org/2023/01/20/el-paso-migrantsapply-for-asylum-with-annunciation-house/. It is possible that the provision of such information crosses the line from mere counseling into specific instructions on how to commit fraud.

The counter claim goes on to state that there exists good reason — the article again — to think that Annunciation House is doing all of those illegal things.  None of this is made up.

darryll k. jones