Annunciation House founder and director Ruben Garcia warned the Texas attorney general’s intention to shut down the El Paso migrant aid nonprofit is just the beginning – other humanitarian organizations could be next.
He was responding to state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who threatened to revoke the organization’s license to operate in the state and asked to inspect its records.
Garcia led a press conference on Friday morning in the Annunciation House’s care center in Downtown El Paso, joined by attorney Jerome Wesevich of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, who is representing the organization in its legal fight. Other El Paso leaders at the municipal, state and federal level also joined.
Outside the building, human rights activists chanted “We are A House!” in solidarity with the Catholic nonprofit and its decades-long dedication to humanitarian aid.
Garcia said over the years, Annunciation House and a network of faith-based organizations have worked with the U.S. Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security to take in thousands of people who have been processed and had nowhere to go but the streets.
On Tuesday, Paxton accused Annunciation House of “human smuggling” and “operating a stash house.”
“What this is about is human beings who have arrived, who are now in front of us, that are in our community, and the question arises, ‘How do we respond to these human beings?’” Garcia said on Friday.
“Is there no shame to refer to houses of God, houses of hospitality, as stash houses?” he said.
Speakers at the press conference included U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, Texas Rep. Joe Moody, El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser and faith leaders from the Catholic Diocese of El Paso and Temple Mount Sinai.
El Paso Matters reached out to the Attorney General’s Office for comment on Friday after the event.
“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,” Paxton said in a statement on Tuesday.
Long history of serving immigrants
Garcia, a protege of the Catholic nun St. Mother Teresa, founded Annunciation House in 1978. The volunteer-run organization provides hospitality services to migrants, immigrants and refugees in El Paso, such as short-term shelter, meals and connection to medical services.
Many migrants and asylum seekers are fleeing violence, persecution or economic collapse in their home countries. Tens of thousands of people in desperation, including children, have risked their lives to cross the Darién Gap in Colombia and Panama, a dense, 60-mile stretch of mountainous jungle that has become a gravesite for those who don’t survive the journey.
And of those who make it to the U.S.-Mexico border between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, many have endured severe hardships such as kidnapping, robbery, and injuries. In 2018, Annunciation House helped reunite migrant parents and children who were separated by the Trump administration.
Annunciation House is among numerous faith-based organizations in El Paso and Juárez who provide food, donated clothes and medicine, temporary shelter and connection to the city’s and county’s federally-funded migrant assistance centers.
Paxton has support among the religious right and in the past appealed for more Christian involvement in politics. Wesevich said on Friday that Paxton should “dust off his Bible and read through it sometimes.”
In a statement released ahead of the press conference, Annunciation House said its work in El Paso comes “out of the scriptural and Gospel mandate to welcome the stranger.”
“Annunciation House’s response to the stranger is no different from that of the schools who enroll children of refugees, the clinics and hospitals who care for the needs of refugees, and the churches, synagogues, and mosques who welcome families to join in worship,” the statement read.
Bishop Mark Seitz from the Catholic Diocese of El Paso said their work is about “shared human dignity” and the El Paso community will not surrender the identity of the borderlands to inhumane immigration policy.
“We will not be intimidated in our work to serve Jesus Christ in our sisters and brothers, fleeing danger and seeking to keep their families together,” Seitz said.
Texas AG, Annunciation House embroiled in legal battle
Investigators with the Attorney General’s Office went to Annunciation House’s office on Feb. 7 and served the organization with a request to examine records related to its operations, according to court records. They demanded the organization release within one day documentation about the nonprofit’s clients.
The state denied the nonprofit’s request for an extension, Wesevich said.
In response, Annunciation House sued the Attorney General’s Office, asking a state judge to determine which documents the nonprofit is legally required to release. Judge Francisco Dominguez of the 205th District Court in El Paso on Feb. 8 also granted Annunciation House a temporary restraining order that blocked the attorney general from enforcing the order for records.
Wesevich wrote in a Feb. 8 email to the Attorney General’s Office that it was impossible to comply with the deadline and there were concerns about the legality of certain aspects.
He elaborated on Friday that Annunciation House has not refused to provide any documents to the attorney general, but that the court needs to decide when and what documents to provide under the law.
“It’s a very sensitive matter for us to provide somebody’s medical record to a government agency,” Wesevich said. “We don’t control what happens to those documents after they leave us.”
This process could have been handled in a few emails, but it instead appears that Paxton is using the request for documents as a pretext to close Annunciation House, Wesevich said.
In response to Annunciation House’s lawsuit, Paxton’s office filed a counterclaim against Annunciation House, seeking to overturn the temporary restraining order.
Dominguez scheduled a hearing for 9 a.m. March 7 on Annunciation House’s request for a temporary injunction. An injunction typically remains in place until the case is closed and would be more difficult to overturn than the restraining order Dominguez previously granted.
The attorney general argues Annunciation House is violating state law by not immediately handing over the requested records and if the organization does not comply, the court should revoke the nonprofit’s registration and liquidate its assets. If a judge agrees, this would end Annunciation House’s operations in Texas.
Paxton also alleges Annunciation House is facilitating illegal immigration. Court filings cited a 2023 El Paso Matters article about the nonprofit’s efforts to help migrants who qualify for asylum fill out their applications.
People have the legal right to request asylum and remain in the United States while their case is pending. To apply for asylum, a person must already be in the United States and believe they are in danger of persecution if they return to their home country.
Escobar, Garcia and Marisa Limón Garza, executive director Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center of El Paso-Juárez, connected the Attorney General Office’s actions to other actions by the state, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s controversial Operation Lone Star and the recent signing of SB 4, which makes it a state crime to illegally cross the border from Mexico. Immigration law enforcement is typically a federal issue.
Closing down Annunciation House will hamper faith-based groups’ ability to recruit volunteers because of the possible legal liability, a concern Garcia raised last year when El Paso and West Texas leaders called for immigration reform from visiting U.S. senators.
“This is not just migrants, refugees, people who got here yesterday,” Limón Garza said. “This is a documented person driving their sick mom, who’s undocumented, to La Fe (health clinic). I just want you to understand that.”
