Texas state District Judge J.R. Flores hears arguments from Catholic Charities attorney William Powell, second left, as Matthew Kennedy and Levi Fuller with the Texas attorney general’s office listen on Wednesday, July 17, 2024, in Edinburg, Texas. Catholic Charities is asking the court to prevent the state from deposing one of the organization’s leaders.
A prominent aid group along the U.S.-Mexico border asked a Texas judge on Wednesday to push back on a widening Republican-led investigation into nonprofits that help migrants, weeks after a separate court rejected efforts by the state to shutter an El Paso shelter.
Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley provides temporary shelter and food to as many as 2,000 migrants a day when border crossings are high. In recent months, the nonprofit and at least three others in Texas that help migrants have come under scrutiny from state officials following a directive from Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who has aggressively pushed boundaries in his efforts to curb illegal crossings.
Without citing evidence, Abbott in 2022 alleged that some border nonprofits may be acting “unlawfully,” including by helping migrants enter the U.S. illegally. Leaders of Catholic Charities have denied the accusations and say the state has presented nothing to back up the claims.
During a hearing Wednesday in Edinburg, state District Judge J.R. Flores said he would rule as early as next week whether the state can depose a member of Catholic Charities, which is fighting to block the deposition and says it has already turned over more than 100 pages of documents to state investigators.
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“I am glad we had a chance to present our case in court today,” said Sister Norma Pimentel, the group's executive director. “The small staff at Catholic Charities works tirelessly around the clock to serve needy people throughout our communities.”
An attorney for the state Attorney General Ken Paxton's office referred questions after the hearing to the agency's press office, which did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Among the evidence that Paxton's office submitted during the hearing was a letter from Republican Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas in 2022 that accuses Catholic Charities USA, without citing any evidence, of assisting illegal border crossings. Attorneys for the state told Flores that a deposition could help them determine whether to sue Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley.
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William Powell, an attorney for Catholic Charities, told the judge that the two organizations operate separately. He said the state hasn't produced evidence of wrongdoing and argued that there would be no benefit to letting a deposition proceed.
Crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border are down and Catholic Charities has been serving fewer than 1,000 migrants a day of late. According to figures released Monday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico plunged 29% in June.
Other organizations that have come under scrutiny by Texas officials include Team Brownsville, an organization that helps migrants along the border in Brownsville, and Annunciation House, a migrant shelter network in El Paso.
In early July, an El Paso judge ruled in favor of Annunciation House to shield them from what he called “harassment” from state investigators. On Monday, Paxton said his office would appeal that decision.
