CV NEWS FEED // The El Paso Diocese bishop has fired back against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over his efforts to shut down a Catholic nonprofit migrant shelter.
In a recently published op-ed, Bishop Mark Seitz wrote that Annunciation House is being targeted for offering shelter for migrants “as a response of faith.”
Annunciation House, the bishop wrote, “has been an effective, compassionate local response to a complex and broken immigration system,” for more than 45 years. However, this month AG Paxton moved to sue the organization for “helping undocumented people enter the country,” according to an NBC News report.
Annunciation House first filed suit against the Attorney General after he demanded the group turn over its records in 24 hours or face shutdown. Paxton’s office then filed a countersuit after a judge granted the nonprofit two weeks to respond, citing public records which it said indicated the organization was enabling illegal immigrants.
Annunciation House’s “work is an example of our Catholic commitment to the poor, the Christian call to love one’s neighbor, and stepping into the breach to take action where many will not,” the Bishop said. “Our church, our city and our country owe Annunciation House a deep debt of gratitude.”
“This is not about politics,” Seitz continued:
I know the guests at Annunciation House, those trapped on the other side of the border, and those who have died trying to cross it. I have encountered them and have experienced their pain, suffering and hope. This is about their lives and our shared human dignity.
Our community’s actions in this moment, the decisions that we make, and the response that we offer today, will be judged by whether or not we rise to that standard.
Denouncing “inhumane immigration policies,” Seitz emphasized the importance of standing by community aid workers and volunteers assisting migrants in El Paso, “a place which chooses compassion over indifference, human fraternity over division, and radical hope and evangelical love over hatred and exclusion.”
