Catholic migrant shelter battles Texas AG, who wants to shut it down

Texas' Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, sued to shut down Annunciation House, a faith-based group that has sheltered migrants for decades, escalating conservatives’ targeting of Catholic organizations and amping up the state’s own immigration enforcement operation.

Texas' attorney general wants to shut down a faith-based group that has sheltered migrants for decades, escalating conservatives’ targeting of Catholic organizations and amping up the state’s own immigration enforcement operation.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, has sued to revoke the license to operate of Annunciation House in the border city of El Paso, after a judge sided with the nonprofit and allowed it 14 days to respond to a demand for records by Paxton. Paxton's office requested among other things logs identifying people to whom the organization has provided services.

Paxton's office said in a statement Tuesday that public records it has reviewed suggest the organization has been helping undocumented people enter the country, among other things.

But Jerome Wesevich, the Texas RioGrande Legal Aid attorney representing Annunciation House, said Paxton's lawsuit to shut down Annunciation House and its shelters has never been about obtaining documents.

"What they wanted was a pretext to shut us down," Wesevich told NBC News.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/catholic-migrant-shelter-battles-texas-paxton-rcna139809

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