The News & Topicality Thread

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Source: El Paso Matters
Link: elpasomatters DOT org/2024/02/23/annunciation-house-migrant-nonprofit-responds-texas-ag-ken-paxton/

Annunciation House warns Texas AG could target other NGOs for migrant aid

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El Paso leaders gathered to defend the humanitarian nonprofit, which is being sued by the state.

Feb 23, 2024 — Annunciation House founder and director Ruben Garcia warned the Texas attorney general’s intention to shut down the El Paso migrant aid nonprofit is just the beginning — other humanitarian organizations could be next.

He was responding to state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who threatened to revoke the organization’s license to operate in the state and asked to inspect its records.

Garcia led a press conference on Friday morning in the Annunciation House’s care center in Downtown El Paso, joined by attorney Jerome Wesevich of Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, who is representing the organization in its legal fight. Other El Paso leaders at the municipal, state and federal level also joined.

Outside the building, human rights activists chanted “We are A-House!” in solidarity with the Catholic nonprofit and its decades-long dedication to humanitarian aid.

Garcia said over the years, Annunciation House and a network of faith-based organizations have worked with the U.S. Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security to take in thousands of people who have been processed and had nowhere to go but the streets.

On Tuesday, Paxton accused Annunciation House of “human smuggling” and “operating a stash house.”

“What this is about is human beings who have arrived, who are now in front of us, that are in our community, and the question arises, ‘How do we response to these human beings?’ ” Garcia said on Friday.

“Is there no shame to refer to houses of God, houses of hospitality, as stash houses?” he said.

Speakers at the press conference included U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, Texas Rep. Joe Moody, El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser and faith leaders from the Catholic Diocese of El Paso and Temple Mount Sinai.

[…]

Long history of serving immigrants

[…]

Annunciation House is among numerous faith-based organizations in El Paso and Juárez who provide food, donated clothes and medicine, temporary shelter and connection to the city’s and county’s federally-funded migrant assistance centers.

Paxton has support among the religious right and in the past appealed for more Christian involvement in politics. Wesevich said on Friday that Paxton should “dust off his Bible and read through it sometimes.”

In a statement released ahead of the press conference, Annunciation House said its work in El Paso comes “out of the scriptural and Gospel mandate to welcome the stranger.”

“Annunciation House’s response to the stranger is 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,” the statement read.

[…]

Texas AG, Annunciation House embroiled in legal battle

Investigators with the Attorney General’s Office went to Annunciation House’s office on Feb. 7 and served the organization with a request to examine records related to its operations, according to court records. They demanded the organization release within one day documentation about the nonprofit’s clients.

The state denied the nonprofit’s request for an extension, Wesevich said.

In response, Annunciation House sued the Attorney General’s Office, asking a state judge to determine which documents the nonprofit is legally required to release. Judge Francisco Dominguez of the 205th District Court in El Paso on Feb. 8 also granted Annunciation House a temporary restraining order that blocked the attorney general from enforcing the order for records.

Wesevich wrote in a Feb. 8 email to the Attorney General’s Office that it was impossible to comply with the deadline and there were concerns about the legality of certain aspects.

He elaborated on Friday that Annunciation House has not refused to provide any documents to the attorney general, but that the court needs to decide when and what documents to provide under the law.

“It’s a very sensitive matter for us to provide somebody’s medical record to a government agency,” Wesevich said. “We don’t control what happens to those documents after they leave us.”

This process could have been handled in a few emails, but it instead appears that Paxton is using the request for documents as a pretext to close Annunciation House, Wesevich said.

In response to Annunciation House’s lawsuit, Paxton’s office filed a counterclaim against Annunciation House, seeking to overturn the temporary restraining order.

Dominguez scheduled a hearing for 9 a.m. March 7 on Annunciation House’s request for a temporary injunction. An injunction typically remains in place until the case is closed and would be more difficult to overturn than the restraining order Dominguez previously granted.

The attorney general argues Annunciation House is violating state law by not immediately handing over the requested records and if the organization does not comply, the court should revoke the nonprofit’s registration and liquidate its assets. If a judge agrees, this would end Annunciation House’s operations in Texas.

Paxton also alleges Annunciation House is facilitating illegal immigration. Court filings cited a 2023 El Paso Matters article about the nonprofit’s efforts to help migrants who qualify for asylum fill out their applications.

People have the legal right to request asylum and remain in the United States while their case is pending. To apply for asylum, a person must already be in the United States and believe they are in danger of persecution if they return to their home country.

Escobar, Garcia and Marisa Limón Garza, executive director Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center of El Paso–Juárez, connected the Attorney General Office’s actions to other actions by the state, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s controversial Operation Lone Star and the recent signing of SB 4, which makes it a state crime to illegally cross the border from Mexico. Immigration law enforcement is typically a federal issue.

Closing down Annunciation House will hamper faith-based groups’ ability to recruit volunteers because of the possible legal liability, a concern Garcia raised last year when El Paso and West Texas leaders called for immigration reform from visiting U.S. senators.

“This is not just migrants, refugees, people who got here yesterday,” Limón Garza said. “This is a documented person driving their sick mom, who’s undocumented, to La Fe (health clinic). I just want you to understand that.”

[Del]

+JMJ+

Source: El Paso Matters
Link: elpasomatters DOT org/2024/02/23/annunciation-house-migrant-nonprofit-responds-texas-ag-ken-paxton/

Annunciation House warns Texas AG could target other NGOs for migrant aid

There is no indication that the Texas AG is "targeting" Annunciation House or any NGO's. It's not like Biden's FBI atargets pro-lifers or Midwestern grannies who attended the protest on Jan 6.

Annunciation House refused to provide documents requested by the Texas regarding their work and finances. Annunciation House sued Texas in an effort to resist compliance.

You know how suspected felons fight police and get themselves hurt or killed while violently resisting arrest? And then BLM and the professional race baiters claim that police are "targeting Black men"? It's like that.

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Source: The Gazette (Iowa)
Link: thegazette DOT com/state-government/texas-ag-moves-to-shut-down-catholic-migrant-shelter-could-the-same-happen-in-iowa/

Texas AG moves to shut down Catholic migrant shelter. Could the same happen in Iowa? [In-Depth]

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Iowa City migrant shelter worries Iowa bills could lead to attempt to shut down Catholic nonprofit.

IOWA CITY — Immigrant workers and Catholic charities worry a package of bills being advanced by Iowa Republican lawmakers would criminalize and could lead to the closure of faith-based migrant shelters and civic engagement organizations to house or transport asylum-seekers.

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Catholic migrant shelter Annunciation House under similar legislation signed into law in that state to turn over information about the guests they serve.

[…]

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last year signed a law being challenged as unconstitutional by the Justice Department allowing law enforcement officials to arrest people they suspect of being migrants who crossed into the country illegally. It would also allow judges to order their removal and enlist law enforcement to transport migrants to the border so they can return to Mexico, whether or not that is their country of origin.

Republicans in the Iowa House and Senate have advanced similar legislation.

The Iowa City Catholic Worker House, like Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, helps sponsor and resettle asylum-seekers and provides food, housing, clothing, transportation, accompaniment, and connections to legal assistance, school enrollment, and supportive care.

Both organizations work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security to house people whom the agencies have processed and released, who often have been permitted into the country while they await hearings.

“This is what is at stake in Iowa if lawmakers pass anti-immigrant legislation here,” according to an “action alert” email and online petition sent Thursday to 2,000 Catholic Worker House supporters. “Not only will essential workers with a precarious immigration status be put at even more risk, faith-based groups that serve and organize immigrant workers like Escucha Mi Voz and the Iowa City Catholic Worker will also be targeted.”

A top House Republican said lawmakers amended the bill so as not to apply to churches, charities "or people who in good faith are trying to take care of people."

What would the proposed Iowa immigration bills do?

Senate File 2340 and House File 2567 would make it a state felony to reenter Iowa after being previously deported from the U.S.

State courts would be permitted to order the removal of immigrants arrested under the new state law, and local officials would be given legal immunity when assisting in immigration enforcement measures.

Officers and state agencies would be cleared to transport undocumented migrants to ports of entry to make sure they comply.

Law enforcement officers would not be allowed to arrest or detain an undocumented migrant on the grounds of a public or private school, place of worship, at a health care facility where a migrant is receiving medical treatment or those receiving a medical examination for sexual assault.

State courts also would be prohibited from suspending or interrupting prosecution of someone whose federal immigration status is pending or will be initiated.

House File 2608 would make it a felony to “encourage or induce a person to enter or remain” in the county in violation of federal law by “concealing, harboring, or shielding that person from detection.”

The bill was amended to specify “a person commits the offense of smuggling of persons” if done “knowingly, for payment or some other benefit.”

Rep. Steve Holt, R-Denison, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and is the lead Republican on the bill, said the modified language is meant to exempt churches, charities and other nonprofits that provide aid to immigrants and refugees.

“I don’t know that much about the Texas case, other than to say what we’re trying to do is not that,” Holt said. “We’re trying to go after individuals who are smuggling, trafficking people into the country illegally, or into the state illegally. We’re not interested in going after church organizations or anything of that kind.”

Immigrant advocates warn bills violate protections for asylum-seekers

Proponents say the legislation is needed to crack down on increases in fentanyl seizures, drug overdose deaths and human trafficking attributed to illegal immigration issues and a failure of Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration and Congress to secure the border and enforce federal immigration laws.

Immigrant rights advocates warn the measures would lead to widespread racial profiling and circumvent protections asylum-seekers have under constitutional law and international obligations.

They also argue Iowa courts and law enforcement are not equipped and lack the training, legal expertise and jurisdiction to handle immigration law and make decisions about a person’s immigration status.

Federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, have ruled that immigration laws can only be enforced by the federal government.

"These bills put all Iowans and visitors at risk of profiling while criminalizing and targeting our churches and working-class, immigrant communities,“ according to an online petition by the Iowa City Catholic Worker and Escucha Mi Voz calling on Gov. Kim Reynolds and Republican Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird to publicly condemn the bills.

“Catholic social teaching informs us that public policy should welcome the stranger and have a preferential option for the poor,” the petition states. “Anti-immigrant, anti-worker, anti-charity legislation could cost Iowa billions in lost state GDP in just one year. But the true costs to our hardworking immigrant families and faith communities will be incalculable.”

The petition is available at: bit DOT ly/immigrantionpetition

Iowa governor, attorney general critical of Biden immigration policy

[…]

Faith-based charities help migrants after border screening

Raziel Argueta, an immigration attorney in Des Moines, said the legislation advanced by Iowa Republican lawmakers even while amended would have a “chilling effect” on charities and nonprofits that help migrants with daily needs — including food, legal services and places to go that aren't city streets — and are vital to an orderly immigration process.

Migrants served by the Iowa City Catholic Worker House have often presented claims for asylum or other immigration relief. Most have waited for months at the U.S.–Mexico border waiting to get “paroled” into the U.S., allowing them to temporarily live and, in most cases, work in the United States without fear of deportation. They have been released to the Catholic Worker House after having been screened and interviewed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and found to have a credible fear of persecution or torture if they return to their home country.

With such requests, DHS requires proof they will have a means of support while in the United States, often requiring that a parolee have a sponsor who agrees to provide financial support for the duration of the parole authorization period. An inability to provide evidence of financial support while in the United States may lead to a denial of parole.

Faith-based charities and nonprofits like Iowa City Catholic Worker House provide that support, as well as supervision, driving refugees and asylum-seekers to required Department of Homeland Security check-ins, to get their fingerprints and biometric data taken to secure work permits, and to immigration and asylum hearings in Cedar Rapids, Des Moines and Omaha.

“It’s making the system stronger and more effective,” said David Goodner, co-founder of the Catholic Worker House. “So if they start attacking that, they’re eroding the system from working the way it’s supposed to be.”

Argueta, the Des Moines immigration attorney, agreed.

“It’s not fueling more illegal immigration, it’s allowing people who have already been released by immigration (agencies) to arrive where they’re already headed,” he said. “They’re already going through the parole process and being released. If we want to avoid the chaos in New York and Illinois, where migrants are being bused and dropped off (without access to a support network) and then leaves the city responsible, why attack organizations assisting and preventing that situation?”

Both worry that under the Iowa bills, if passed, the state’s Republican attorney general will do the same as in Texas and request logs identifying people to whom the organization has provided services in an effort to go after immigrants and their support networks

Goodner said the Catholic Worker House currently serves 47 refugees and asylum-seekers living in two houses and a couple of apartments.

“It’s not criminals. It’s not drug dealers,” he said.

The organization also has a database of about 5,000 contacts of immigrant workers in five counties.

“The Texas Attorney General has created a road map for other states to go after immigrants and their support networks,” Goodner said. “Will the Iowa Attorney General come after our database, and how do we protect those individuals and that proprietary, confidential personal information we use to invite them to meetings and vaccination and legal clinics?”

He said Texas is going after the migrant shelter system, “because why pick off one immigrant at a time when you can go after an organization that’s helping hundreds of them?”

Many migrants worked essential jobs during pandemic

[…]

Ninoska Campos of Iowa City is an immigrant worker and single mother of two who emigrated with her family from Honduras in 2019 and applied for asylum at the U.S.–Mexico border. Her husband was deported in 2020.

She works at a hotel, volunteers with the Catholic Worker House to help other families seeking asylum, and helped start the immigrant rights organization Escucha Mi Voz, or “Hear My Voice.”

“The Iowa City Catholic Worker House is one of the strongest tools there is for us here in Johnson County,” Campos said through interpreter Emily Sinnwell, co-founder of Iowa City Catholic Worker House. “… It really is unconditional support that they give out to that immigrant community. … It’s very difficult to just put somebody on the street; somebody that doesn’t have family or anywhere to go.”

Though they may be undocumented or have tenuous legal status, and could be deported on a whim, those families served by the faith-based nonprofit fill numerous important jobs — and pay taxes — in farm, housekeeping, construction, roofing and meatpacking work that others won’t take, Campos said.

Many of whom, including Campos, worked as essential front-line workers during the COVID-19 pandemic but were excluded from stimulus checks and federal assistance. Campos worked in a hotel taking care of individuals with COVID-19 who had to isolate from family members.

“These are hurtful laws,” she said. “You have to realize these laws that are attacking the immigrant community, they’re attacking those same people that work to keep the state going economically day in and day out. … If (lawmakers pushing forward these laws) care so much about their country, they have to realize the economy of this country is sustained by immigrants.”

[Del]

Democrat media want stupid voters ("see "Voters Are Dumb" thread) to believe that Republicans want to shut down all of the charitable migrant centers.

Don't be a dumb voter.

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Source: Catholic Review / OSV News
Link: catholicreview DOT org/organizations-church-officials-urge-migration-crisis-to-be-approached-with-human-dignity/

Organizations, church officials urge migration crisis to be approached with human dignity

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Feb 26, 2023 — Instead of hyper-politicizing the border, officials should find humane and workable solutions that can protect the dignity and human rights of migrants, said experts who work with migrants at the border during a Feb. 21 webinar.

The webinar “Telling the Truth About the Border: A Humane View of Border Management” was organized by the Center for Migration Studies of New York. It included interventions by those who live and have lived along the U.S.–Mexico border and could offer first-hand perspectives about the current situation.

Bishop Mark J. Seitz of El Paso, Texas, who is the U.S. bishops’ migration committee chair, opened the discussion. “Immigration is looked on by many as an enforcement issue, a legal issue or a social issue. From the church perspective, immigration is a human issue, specifically about the human rights and human dignity of the person,” he said.

“The recent border agreement, which weakened asylum protections for asylum-seekers, among other items, would have violated human rights from the church’s perspective,” he said, referring to a recently-proposed bipartisan bill in Congress that was ultimately rejected.

“It would have made it more difficult for bona fide asylum seekers to even qualify for a hearing before a judge,” the bishop noted, adding that such an agreement “would also have increased deportation powers for law enforcement.”

The bishop said that combining fewer protections with increased law enforcement is a “dangerous formula” that would lead to the return of the persecuted to the dangerous situations from which they fled.

“We believe that there are ways to manage our southern border without sacrificing human rights,” he said. “The border would stabilize if our elected officials looked at all aspects of our broken immigration system. An emphasis on legal avenues would protect migrants and asylum seekers, weaken smuggling networks and help meet our labor needs.”

The bishop also said that the United States and other countries need to make a concerted effort to address the root causes that compel them to migrate, so that migrants and asylum-seekers can remain in their home countries and raise their families in safety.

Bishop Seitz suggested three principles when addressing migration: The right to asylum is enshrined in national and international law and cannot and should not be restricted; migrants should be treated with respect and dignity; and border control and management should be done in a way that protects human rights, human dignity and the right to due process.

“I encourage our elected officials to return to bipartisan immigration reform talks that repair an immigration system that is outdated and unworkable,” he said. “Instead of using immigration as a political issue, they should show their statesmanship and find humane and workable solutions which serve both the interests of our nation and those who seek to migrate here.”

[…]

Dylan Corbett, executive director of the Hope Border Institute of El Paso, Texas, addressed, among other things, the CBP One smartphone app — which migrants seeking protection at the border are required to use to set appointments to present themselves at a U.S. port of entry — calling it “a real systemic failure” that “it’s just not cutting it for everyone who needs protection.”

“CBP One is not working. It can be part of the toolbox of things that work, but the government needs to expand its capacity, streamline it, make it more flexible and make sure that we’re prioritizing the vulnerable. Because right now, although it’s working for many, it’s not working for all. And that’s why too many people are dying,” he said.

Corbett also stressed that “the politics are not working.” The border has become hyper-politicized, he said, and “is an obstacle to all immigration reform efforts, Republican and now Democrat.”

“The actions of Texas in recent months, in recent years, in recent days, are truly demonic and fanning the flames of this politicization. And it’s all political,” he said. “When you get stuck in that logic of crisis, you can no longer see solutions.”

Corbett also said there needs to be “a vision grounded in faith, grounded in hope, a structure and capacity to connect all the points of light between the border and the interior.”

“There’s no crisis of immigration,” Corbett concluded. “There’s a crisis of imagination, of vision, of human vulnerability, of violence against women, of inequality, racism, political expediency, scapegoating. That’s the crisis. We need to disabuse ourselves of the language of crisis.”

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Source: National Catholic Reporter / OSV News
Link: ncronline DOT org/news/catholics-must-have-religious-liberty-meet-migrants-basic-human-needs-bishops-say

Catholics must have religious liberty to 'meet migrants' basic human needs,' bishops say

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Washington — The ability of Catholic and other faith-based groups to "meet migrants' basic human needs" at the U.S.–Mexico border is a religious liberty issue and must be defended, U.S. bishops said in recent statements.

In a Feb. 26 statement issued in response to a lawsuit filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in an attempt to shut down Annunciation House, a Catholic nonprofit in El Paso serving migrants, Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne–South Bend, Indiana, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee for Religious Liberty, expressed solidarity with faith-driven ministries to migrants.

"It is hard to imagine what our country would look like without the good works that people of faith carry out in the public square," Rhoades said. "For this, we can thank our strong tradition of religious liberty, which allows us to live out our faith in full."

Paxton's suit targeting El Paso's Annunciation House comes as some Republicans have grown increasingly hostile toward nongovernmental organizations, particularly Catholic ones, that provide resources such as food and shelter to migrants at the U.S.–Mexico border.

Rhoades said that as "the tragic situation along our border with Mexico increasingly poses challenges for American communities and vulnerable persons alike, we must especially preserve the freedom of Catholics and other people of faith to assist their communities and meet migrants' basic human needs."

Paxton's office alleged Annunciation House's efforts amount to "facilitating illegal entry to the United States" and "human smuggling."

[…]

The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops said in a Feb. 23 statement that the state's bishops "join Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso in expressing solidarity with ministry volunteers and people of faith who seek only to serve vulnerable migrants as our nation and state continue to pursue failed migration and border security policies."

"Our border ministries are intended to be a stabilizing presence that protects both citizens and migrants," their statement said. "The Catholic Church in Texas remains committed to praying and working for a secure border, to protect the vulnerable and for just immigration solutions to protect all human life."

Rhoades commended the Texas bishops for "expressing solidarity with those seeking simply to fulfill the fundamental biblical call: 'whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.' "

[Hovannes]

The Sierra Nevada are supposed to get clobbered with a blizzard over the next few days.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topst ... 2ec8&ei=16

[Del]

The Sierra Nevada are supposed to get clobbered with a blizzard over the next few days.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topst ... 2ec8&ei=16

Depending on your political religion, this is either irrefutable proof of existential climate change.... or a common-sense warning to stay home during some bad weather.

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Source: Diocese of Sacramento
Link: scd DOT org/news/california-bishops-voice-support-texas-bishops-and-annunciation-house

California bishops voice support for Texas bishops and Annunciation House [Press Release]

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Feb 28, 2024 — The Executive Committee of the California Catholic Conference of Bishops released the following statement today regarding the Texas Attorney General’s lawsuit against the Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas:

The Catholic bishops of California stand in solidarity with Bishop Mark Seitz of the Dioceses of El Paso, Texas, as he defends the Church’s right to practice its faith and implement the corporal works of mercy.

It is shameful that the Texas Attorney General would file suit against Annunciation House in El Paso. For a country that was founded by immigrants from Europe seeking religious freedom and tolerance, we find the actions of the Texas AG abhorrent in attempting to curtail the work of people of faith.

The Annunciation House has accompanied migrants for nearly 50 years, partnering with local and federal law enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol. For the AG to claim the nonprofit is responsible for “worsening illegal immigration” shows a lack of fundamental understanding of the gravity of immigration as a humanitarian concern and unjustly attacks a long-standing partner in relief efforts.

As bishops of a border state, we appreciate the humbling and complex immigration challenges our country faces. At the same time, we are committed to the same solutions that the Texas bishops have declared: to remain committed to praying and working for a secure border, to protect the vulnerable, and for just immigration solutions to protect all human life.

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me …” (Mt. 25: 35).

[Wosbald]

+JMJ+

Source: America
Link: americamagazine DOT org/politics-society/2024/02/29/migrants-catholic-charities-usa-immigrants-asylum-texas-paxton-border

Catholic charities and religious freedom are under fire at the border [Analysis]

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Feb 28, 2024 — The US 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.

But with fights over insurance regulations long resolved, in recent years it has been the church’s various works of mercy for migrants that have become the most acutely threatened by antagonists at both the state and federal level. Many critics of the church, fulminating over alleged open border policies, have come to equate care for migrants with “great replacement” conspiracies. If in its first years, the bishops’ campaign for religious freedom seemed directed at the US left, it is actors on the hard right who have now emerged as the most significant threat to religious freedom.

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 almost 50 years has provided food, clothing, water and guidance to migrants — a “stash house,” connecting its efforts to traffickers who deliver migrants to the US border from troubled states like Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

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This is not the first time Catholic agencies have found themselves caught in GOP 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 NGOs like Catholic Charities for direct services they provide to migrants. The bill narrowly passed in the GOP-controlled House of Representatives in May along a party-line vote. It has gone nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

And in a letter to Catholic Charities USA in December 2022, some of the same Republican House members demanded that CCUSA agencies preserve documents, suggesting they would be necessary for a potential House investigation into federal funding for migrant assistance efforts.

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, Catholic Charities USA 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.

In a December 2022 statement, CCUSA called human trafficking accusations “both fallacious and factually inaccurate.”

“Our life-saving humanitarian work neither violates federal laws nor endangers communities,” CCUSA said. “Our humanitarian care (food, clean clothes, bathing facilities, overnight respite) is provided legally. It typically begins after an asylum-seeker has been processed and released by the federal government.”

“Both US and international law provide for the right to seek asylum at another country’s border,” the statement continued. “Without the assistance of Catholic Charities and other humanitarian organizations, many migrant families and individuals would be on the streets of the nation’s communities. These communities are better equipped to handle large numbers of migrants precisely because of our humanitarian services.”

According to the USCCB, in a fact sheet defending Catholic ministries that serve migrants and refugees, there is no “evidence or research to support the claim that the humanitarian and religious services provided by Catholic organizations incentivize unlawful migration. Rather, many studies have concluded that a varied and often complex set of push-pull factors typically influence a person’s decision to migrate.”

In the end, Catholics working at the border say they are merely following the most basic demands of the Gospel, arguing that the work, an expression of Catholic faith in action, is protected by the First Amendment. For decades, this has been a more or less uncontested belief as the church has developed its expertise in migrant assistance and refugee resettlement with the support and gratitude of the federal government. Those once uncontroversial works of mercy and public service now appear to be the latest casualty in a culture war waged from the political right.