HomeCrimeKen Paxton Annunciation House deadline demand unfair: Judge

Ken Paxton Annunciation House deadline demand unfair: Judge

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC held at the Hilton Anatole on July 11, 2021 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images.)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference CPAC held at the Hilton Anatole on July 11, 2021 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images.)

A Texas judge called out the state’s indicted and impeached attorney general Ken Paxton for using the power of his office to unfairly stop a humanitarian organization from rendering aid to migrants.

Annunciation House is a nonprofit organization that provides shelter and other humanitarian aid to migrants, immigrants and refugees in Texas, including assistance with applying for asylum. Paxton and other Texas officials have been aggressively fighting for the Lone Star State to implement its own hard-line immigration laws as a way of securing the U.S.-Mexico border in recent months.

State District Court Judge Francisco Dominguez ruled Monday that when Paxton, a Republican, demanded Annunciation House turn over documents about its operations the day after serving the nonprofit with a subpoena was Paxton’s way of trying “to run roughshod over Annunciation House, without regard to due process or fair play” for the real purpose of preventing it from helping migrants with social services.

Paxton served Annunciation House with an administrative subpoena on Feb. 7, 2024, which contained only the general explanation that it was reviewing the organization “to determine compliance with Texas law.” Annunciation House’s lawyer replied on the same day that his client would provide the documents Paxton requested within 30 days.

Paxton, though, responded by demanding that the documents be turned over by the very next day — Feb. 8, 2024 — and said that if he did not receive them, Annunciation House would be deemed noncompliant.

Instead of producing documents, Annunciation House filed a lawsuit against Paxton on Feb. 8 asking the court to issue a declaratory judgment and restraining order. Although Dominguez temporarily granted the restraining order at first, he ruled on Monday that any request to continue the order, along with any request to quash the subpoena, is moot because the case is now governed by the usual Texas Rules of Civil Procedure discovery rules.

The ruling means that Annunciation House will simply need to comply with the normal timeline for turning over documents requested as part of lawsuit. However, Dominguez’s ruling made it abundantly clear that he understood Paxton’s actions as having been improper.

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