Texas attorney general can’t question Catholic Charities director over migrant services, court says

Subscribe to The Y’all — a weekly dispatch about the people, places and policies defining Texas, produced by Texas Tribune journalists living in communities across the state.

---

McALLEN — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton cannot depose the leader of a McAllen migrant shelter, a Hidalgo County judge ruled Wednesday.

District Judge Bobby Flores’ decision shuts down attempts to compel the executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley to submit to questioning on the shelter’s operations.

An attorney for Catholic Charities, William Powell, said he hoped the ruling put an end to the attorney general’s investigation into the organization’s work.

"We would hope that at this point they've realized that Catholic Charities complies with the law in all the work they do,” Powell said.

In a statement after the ruling, executive director of Catholic Charities, Sister Norma Pimentel, said the organization would “always strive to fulfill its legal obligations” while continuing its mission.

The attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for an interview.

The attorney general's office filed a petition to depose Catholic Charities last month, saying it was investigating whether the organization is illegally harboring migrants or illegally encouraging them to enter or remain in the country.

Catholic Charities, a nonprofit that provides food, shelter and other basic necessities to asylum seekers, people experiencing homelessness and others in need, said it has not violated any laws and the attorney general’s office has not presented any evidence to the contrary.

The nonprofit has become one of the latest targets in Paxton's efforts to shut down nonprofits that provide assistance to migrants.

Earlier this month, an El Paso judge denied the attorney general's efforts to shut down a migrant shelter network there on claims it was violating state law by helping people the state suspected of being undocumented immigrants.

Lawyers for the state accused El Paso’s Annunciation House of violating state laws prohibiting human smuggling and operating a stash house. But state District Judge Francisco Dominguez ruled that the state law was “unenforceable” because it was preempted by federal law.

Federal law also provides anyone who enters the country the right to request asylum. Migrants who cross the border in the Rio Grande Valley and have been allowed to remain in the country while awaiting an asylum hearing are delivered by U.S Customs and Border Protection to the Catholic Charities respite center in McAllen.

Catholic Charities argued that the attorney general's office failed to show that there would be any benefit to the deposition.

"The petition represents a fishing expedition into a pond where no one has even seen a fish," attorneys for Catholic Charities wrote in their response to the attorney general’s petition.

The attorney general's office initially requested documents from Catholic Charities in April. Over the course of a few months, Catholic Charities turned over more than 100 pages of documents regarding how it hires and trains staff as well as its rules and procedures for admitting migrants, including required documentation, its process for applying for federal funds, and its relationship and communication with federal, state and local law enforcement.

The organization also submitted a sworn statement from Pimentel, its executive director, in which she responded to questions on operations, funding and communication with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The attorney general's office, however, said the documents did not shed "meaningful light" into their operations and that Pimentel's statement was non-responsive and evasive.

Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.

---

Big news: director and screenwriter Richard Linklater; NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher; U.S. Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-California; and Luci Baines Johnson will take the stage at The Texas Tribune Festival, Sept. 5–7 in downtown Austin. Buy tickets today!