This one is on the merits, to determine if Ken Paxton has any evidence to support his outlandish claims that the religious charity is engaged in “human trafficking”.
An El Paso judge will rule within two weeks on the attempt by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to close Annunciation House’s migrant shelters, he said at the end of a hearing Monday.
“There are a number of issues that were raised here that were addressed in the pleadings, but that, as you’ve argued them, require me to go back and revisit and look at it a little more closely. So, I would expect, and I’ll do my best to get something to you sooner, but expect a ruling on this in two weeks, by the end of two weeks,” 205th District Judge Francisco Dominguez said at the end of a 45-minute hearing.
During the hearing, attorneys essentially summarized arguments they made at a previous hearing and in written filings to the court. Paxton and attorneys in his office say that Annunciation House – which has deep ties to the Catholic Church – runs “stash houses” and engages in human trafficking, allegations vehemently denied by the nonprofit.
“We believe that the evidence demonstrates concealment, harboring, and shielding (of undocumented immigrants) because Annunciation House denies entry to law enforcement without a reasonable expectation of privacy. Annunciation House withheld documents pertaining to illegal aliens based on frivolous and pretextual objections,” Assistant Attorney General Robert Farquharson argued.
The Attorney General’s Office has said Annunciation House’s refusal to provide requested business records in February gives the office the authority to strip the nonprofit of its ability to do business in Texas. Annunciation House’s attorneys say the state officials are violating the organization’s Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizures, and its religious freedoms.
“Annunciation House does not assert that the attorney general has no investigative authority or cannot investigate Annunciation House. No, the attorney general can, but there are laws, and the attorney general must respect those laws and has tried very hard to get around them at every juncture in this litigation,” said Jerome Wesevich, an attorney for Texas RioGrande Legal Aid who is representing Annunciation House.
Annunciation House is asking Dominguez to block the attorney general from closing its operation and prevent future efforts to seize records without judicial review. The attorney general has asked Dominguez “to revoke its registration to conduct business in Texas, for an injunction against its continued operation, and for appointment of a receiver,” according to court filings.
Pope Francis, in an interview on “60 Minutes,” called Paxton’s efforts to close Annunciation House “madness.”
See here for the previous update. Other than the Pope’s remarks, there isn’t much new to this story since we last tuned in. But we do have the Pope weighing in, and I gotta say as a cradle Catholic it is wild to me that this hasn’t caused a bigger stir among the faithful. Which is not to say that it surprises me – right wing politics, driven by the unholy alliance many Catholic bishops have with the evangelical forced-birth lobby, have warped all kinds of aspects of the Church’s dogma in recent years. I wish I had a good idea of how to combat this, but I don’t. The Trib and the Chron have more.