The Texas Attorney General’s Office told sometimes skeptical Texas Supreme Court justices Monday that El Paso’s Annunciation House migrant shelters are harboring undocumented immigrants and can’t use Catholic religious beliefs as a legal justification for its actions.
“Annunciation House is not immunized because of its religion,” Assistant Attorney General Ryan Baasch said in oral arguments over the agency’s appeal of an El Paso court ruling that blocked efforts to force the Catholic nonprofit to turn over records or face potential closure.
“Do you disagree that this is religious activity?” Justice Debra Lehrmann asked Baasch.
“It may be, and then there’s going to be a question of whether the activity at issue here substantially burdens the religious activity,” Baasch replied.
“If it’s a religious activity, how could it not substantially burden it? I think you want to shut it down?” Justice Jeff Boyd asked.
“The substantiality would be a big part of that inquiry, and I don’t think that there’s enough facts on the record here to determine if the burden has been substantial,” Baasch said.
Watch Texas Supreme Court oral arguments
The Texas Supreme Court is hearing the attorney general’s appeal of 205th District Judge Francisco Dominguez ruling in July, when he rejected what he called “outrageous and intolerable” actions by Paxton’s office in seeking to potentially strip Annunciation House of the right to operate in Texas.
The state’s highest civil court is considering several issues, including whether Annunciation House’s provision of offering hospitality to people who entered the country illegally violates a state law against harboring undocumented immigrants, and whether the attorney general’s efforts to compel Annunciation House to produce records violates the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prohibits government officials from interfering with a person’s free exercise of religion.
Amy Warr, an Austin-based attorney representing Annunciation House, argued that the Attorney General’s Office is using “rhetoric” rather than evidence in its appeal, and said Annunciation House’s activities don’t violate the state’s anti-harboring law.
“There has been no violation of the harboring statute because Annunciation House, an established Ministry of the Catholic Church, does not hide undocumented people from law enforcement. Hiding them is an element of the harboring statue,” Warr told the justices.
She also stressed that the vast majority of people hosted by Annunciation House are legally in the country because they were released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while courts consider their immigration cases.
“Most of the people who we house are brought to us by ICE after they have processed them and they need a place to stay,” Warr said.
Elizabeth Kiernan, an attorney representing First Liberty Institute, a conservative religious liberty advocate that is supporting Annunciation House, argued that the attorney general’s actions are an infringement on the religious beliefs that motivate the Catholic nonprofit’s mission.
“Over 50 years ago, Annunciation House answered the gospel of Matthew’s call to care for the least of these in the service of Christ. The Catholic Church has claimed Annunciation House as one of its own, and Annunciation House’s founder testified that its acts of charity are motivated by its Catholic faith,” Kiernan told the justices. “If (the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act) protects anything, it protects this religious charity against outright closure.”
A ruling in the case is at least several months away, and one justice suggested that the Texas court might want to wait on a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on a Wisconsin case that involves questions of what constitutes religious activity.
The Annunciation House case will be decided by eight of the nine Texas Supreme Court justices because Justice James Sullivan, who was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court last week by Gov. Greg Abbott, isn’t participating in the case. He is not required to state a reason for not participating, a court spokesperson told El Paso Matters.
Paxton has accused Annunciation House of running “stash houses” for undocumented immigrants, an allegation the organization has vigorously disputed.
Annunciation House has said it has operated in compliance with all laws and in accordance with Catholic teachings. Federal immigration agencies have long worked with the organization, which has operated for more than 40 years, to provide care for migrants after they are released by federal authorities.
The nonprofit organization was founded by Catholic lay people who sought to provide assistance to the poor. One of the co-founders, Ruben Garcia, still leads the organization.
Annunciation House has accused Paxton of violating the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Paxton has denied that his office is interfering with religious freedom, and argued in a brief to the Texas Supreme Court that Garcia acknowledged in testimony that Annunciation House “does not offer confessions, baptisms, or communion, and makes ‘no’ efforts to evangelize or convert its guests to any religion.”
The Texas Conference of Catholic Bishops filed a brief with the Texas Supreme Court in support of Annunciation House’s arguments. The bishops said that underlying Paxton’s argument “is the notion that his office, and not the Catholic Church, is the proper arbiter of who is ‘Catholic’ enough to be a Catholic ministry.”
First Liberty Institute, one of the nation’s leading Christian conservative organizations advocating for religious liberty, also sided with Annunciation House in a brief filed with the Texas Supreme Court.
The brief said the high court previously ruled that the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act “requires the government to tread carefully and lightly when its actions substantially burden religious exercise.”
“Shuttering a religious nonprofit like Annunciation House is hardly treading lightly,” First Liberty Institute said in the brief.
The First Liberty Institute support could be helpful to Annunciation House before the all-Republican Texas Supreme Court because of its conservative background and history of successfully arguing religious freedom cases.
The El Paso Chamber and El Paso County filed briefs to the Texas Supreme Court in support of Annunciation House. The America First Legal Foundation – a nonprofit advocacy group founded by Stephen Miller, an architect of President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration policies – filed a brief in support of Paxton.
The battle between Paxton and Annunciation House has been years in the making, as the attorney general and Abbott have criticized the actions of Catholic organizations assisting migrants on the Texas-Mexico border.
On Feb. 7, 2024, representatives from the Attorney General’s Office served Annunciation House with a request to examine operational records. Refusal to provide the documents would allow Paxton to invoke a Texas law that would strip Annunciation House of its ability to do business in Texas, state officials warned.
The following day, Dominguez granted Annunciation House’s request for a temporary restraining order against the attorney general. Paxton countersued Annunciation House on Feb. 20, alleging the nonprofit failed to immediately respond to his requests for records and should be stripped of its ability to do business in Texas.
At a hearing in March, Dominguez – a Democrat – said he believed Paxton had “ulterior political motives” in seeking documents from Annunciation House.
