Religious freedom under fire at the border

There was a good article yesterday on the America Media site by Kevin Clarke about the targeting of Catholic Charities ministry to migrants by Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton. 

Catholic charities and religious freedom are under fire at the border | America Magazine

Paxton has sued an El Paso shelter, Annunciation House, which is run by Catholic Charities, and has been in existence for over 20 years. 

From the article:

"The U.S. bishops’ Fortnight for Freedom, first convened in 2012, was criticized from the start by some lay Catholics who felt the two-week crusade was, as one skeptic put it, “election year political posturing” intended to undermine the Obama re-election campaign. At the time of the first Fortnight, Catholic bishops were confounded by a crowd of federal requirements for employee health insurance that included coverage for abortion and contraception and concerned that church positions on abortion and human sexuality could mean the loss of federal contracts for humanitarian services offered by Catholic providers."

"...If in its first years, the bishops’ campaign for religious freedom seemed directed at the U.S. left, it is actors on the hard right who have now emerged as the most significant threat to religious freedom." (emphasis mine)  "In the latest of a series of acts targeting faith-motivated service to migrants, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued an El Paso shelter, Annunciation House. The lawsuit threatens to revoke the organization’s nonprofit registration, thus putting it out of business, after its leadership declined to provide his office with internal documents it demanded."

"Mr. Paxton, picking up a theme often bandied about in hard-right precincts of the internet, has accused Annunciation House of human smuggling. He called Annunciation House—which for al most 50 years has provided food, clothing, water and guidance to migrants—a “stash house,” connecting its efforts to traffickers who deliver migrants to the U.S. border from troubled states like Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela."

"In a press release, Annunciation House defended its work, charging that Mr. Paxton’s true aim is “not records” but simply to find a way to close down the agency because his office “considers it a crime for a Catholic organization to provide shelter to refugees.”

“Annunciation House has provided hospitality to hundreds of thousands of refugees for over forty-six years,” the agency responded, noting that “this work of accompaniment” derives from a Gospel mandate to welcome the stranger “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.”

"Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso quickly issued a statement supporting Annunciation House. “Let me be clear. For the church’s part, we will endeavor to work with all in pursuit of the common good of our city and nation,” Bishop Seitz wrote on Feb. 22. “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.”

"...Mr. Paxton was neither shamed nor deterred by the significant pushback his lawsuit has produced. “The chaos at the southern border has created an environment where NGOs, funded with taxpayer money from the Biden Administration, facilitate astonishing horrors including human smuggling,” he said in a press statement from his office. “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."

"...This is not the first time Catholic agencies have found themselves caught in G.O.P. crosshairs because of immigration. In May 2023, a group of 21 Republican House members co-sponsored legislation aimed squarely at Catholic Charities and migrating people. Among other provisions meant to beef up enforcement capacity and resume construction of a border wall, the Secure the Border Act of 2023 prohibits funding to faith-based organizations and other N.G.O.s like Catholic Charities for direct services they provide to migrants. The bill narrowly passed in the G.O.P.-controlled House of Representatives in May along a party-line vote. It has gone nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate."

"The idea that Catholic groups in the United States act as the final leg in a hemispheric human smuggling operation has been kicked around for years by right-wing, for-profit conspiracy mongers like Alex Jones, but a Heritage Foundation report and follow-up commentary in December 2022 added a veneer of respectability to the Jones-level paranoia. Heritage alleged that the Biden administration is deliberately opening borders “and mass-releasing millions of illegal aliens into the country,” additionally accusing Catholic and other faith-based agencies of assisting the administration in that effort through their institutional works of mercy."

"Directors of Catholic Charities efforts at the border have, no surprise, denied being part of human smuggling networks, pointing out that they only assist migrants who have already crossed the border—people most often often delivered to Catholic entities by Border Patrol after being processed as asylum applicants. As part of that process, C.C.U.S.A. agencies may provide basic sustenance and clothing, and they will assist migrants in reaching final destinations across the United States in locations where they have sponsors and where their asylum applications will be adjudicated."