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Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday called for the state to investigate whether nonprofits have helped people enter the country illegally, adding another topic of discussion to his arsenal of border hawks and another headache for humanitarian aid groups helping migrants in Texas.
Abbott made his request in a letter Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote a letter citing the increased number of migrants expected to arrive at the border once Title 42 — a federal public health order issued near the start of the pandemic that officials have used to turn back migrants at the border — comes to an end in a few days at a time when record migrant crossings are being seen. Earlier this week, 1,500 people crossed the low waters of the Rio Grande and arrived in El Paso in a single crossing, highlighting the city’s limited resources to deal with migrants.
Without citing any evidence, Abbott said he had received reports that nongovernmental organizations — a term that generally refers to nonprofit humanitarian groups — “may be involved in illegally orchestrating other border crossings through activities on both sides of the border, including in sectors other than El Paso.”
“In light of these reports, I am calling on the Texas Attorney General to launch an investigation into the role of NGOs in planning and facilitating the illegal transportation of illegal immigrants across our borders,” Abbott wrote, adding that he is willing to “develop any sensible legislative solutions that (Paxton’s) office can propose aimed at resolving the current border crisis and the role that NGOs may play in fueling it.”
Abbott’s office did not respond to a question about which reports his office was citing. JOBsNews reported On Monday, Mexican police escorted 20 buses from other parts of Mexico to non-governmental organizations in Mexican border towns. The outlet reported that the migrants then walked from the non-governmental organizations and crossed illegally into El Paso.
Texas has no jurisdiction over Mexican non-governmental organizations, and the report did not allege any wrongdoing by a US-based non-governmental organization.
Still, nonprofit groups working to help migrants at the border say Abbott’s call for investigations could make their work more difficult. The move drew an immediate rebuke from Democratic lawmakers and local officials.
“Governor Abbott’s decision to investigate NGOs that provide humanitarian care to migrants is shameful and intended to intimidate and instill fear in nonprofit and faith-based organizations that exemplify the values we should all aspire to,” U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said in a statement. “The majority of border NGOs working tirelessly at the border are helping to provide temporary shelter, food, and hospitality to migrants, most of whom will be awaiting resolution of their asylum claims with sponsors they have in different parts of the country. They have been doing this work for decades and deserve our praise, not persecution.”
Dylan Corbett, executive director of the El Paso-based Hope Border Institute, said in a statement that Abbott’s language was “alarming and an unequivocal attempt to intimidate humanitarian organizations working on the front lines.”
“This is a moment for border communities to come together to meet a humanitarian challenge. We need support and collaboration from government at all levels, not political grandstanding that comes dangerously close to criminalizing good Samaritans,” Corbett said.
In Texas, nonprofits that assist migrants play a crucial role. Once federal officials release migrants in border towns, which often lack the resources to deal with the large numbers of people crossing the border, these groups help temporarily house migrants and help them find transportation to other parts of the country. In many areas, immigration officials take migrants to nonprofit groups once they have already been processed by the federal government and are free to be released.
The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said efforts by nonprofits to house and process migrants incentivize them to come to the United States and “facilitate Biden’s border crisis.”
“We are absolutely against NGOs playing a role in this border function,” said Mike Howell, director of the Heritage Oversight Project, which conducts research for the foundation in an effort to push for policy changes. “It’s a magnet for human aliens.”
Howell said he welcomed Abbott’s call for investigations into nonprofits.
But without the work of nonprofits, border cities would likely have more migrants wandering the streets with no way forward if they are trying to reach a different destination where they can have family or a support group to help them until their immigration process is finalized. Abbott has even partnered with some nonprofit groups to carry out his policy of busing migrants to Democratic-led cities like Washington, D.C., New York, Chicago and Philadelphia.
Howell said he understood why cities felt the need to provide transportation to other destinations, but that his group would prefer states simply deport migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border. Federal law does not allow states to enforce immigration law, but Howell said he supports states’ efforts to test those laws.
Muzaffar Chishti, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, said Abbott’s call for investigating NGOs is “counterintuitive” to the work the Texas government does with nonprofits.
“The Abbott administration has used NGOs to do some of their work of trying to move people from Texas to other parts of the country. They rely on NGOs to gain a certain degree of control over what would otherwise be, in their eyes, an uncontrollable situation for Texas cities,” Chishti said. “You can’t turn around and say that the same NGOs are also aiding and abetting the migration crisis.”
Chishti said Abbott’s call for an investigation is likely politically motivated, given reports of large numbers of migrants entering the state in recent days. The way he delegated the investigation to Paxton is also tactical, because Abbott gets credit for calling for an investigation and is not blamed if it fails to achieve anything.
“It seems less political and gives him a little bit of legal cover by saying, ‘I’m not making any political decisions, I’m just asking the attorney general to investigate,’” Chishti said. “Since it implies there is some legal wrong here, he thinks it’s safer to let the attorney general be the political bad guy if there’s nothing to investigate.”
Chishti also said the fact that nonprofit groups rather than the federal government are being targeted in the immigration battle signals a new level of escalation.
“They have already given Biden and the federal administration an opportunity by filing lawsuits against almost everything the Biden administration has done or failed to do, so they are looking for other villains,” he said. “It is not enough to attack the administration, you have to attack private actors.”
Following Abbott’s call for an investigation, Paxton’s office announced it was investigating three legal aid groups suspected of “aiding and abetting the invasion of illegal immigrants.” In a press release, Paxton’s office said it was requesting information from three groups that provide legal assistance to immigrants as part of their work: the Equal Justice Center, the Tahirih Justice Center, and American Gateways.
Each of the groups said they were complying with requests for information and that their work complies with federal, state and local guidelines.
The information requests included in the press release were sent on Nov. 22, more than three weeks ago. Those requests are part of an ongoing investigation by Paxton into the Texas Bar Foundation for “facilitating the mass influx of illegal immigrants” by donating money to groups that “encourage, participate in, and fund illegal immigration at the Texas-Mexico border.”
Foundation officials have denied wrongdoing and said they are cooperating with Paxton’s investigation.
Paxton began his investigation into the foundation on the same day the State Bar of Texas told him it planned to sue him for professional misconduct after a disciplinary board found he had filed a frivolous lawsuit seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in four key states to benefit then-President Donald Trump, his ally.
The foundation is made up of attorneys and raises money to provide legal education and services. It is independent of the State Bar of Texas, which is an administrative arm of the Texas Supreme Court.
On Wednesday, the president of the Texas Bar Foundation said in a statement that “the Attorney General’s allegations are without merit.”
“We have reviewed the grants submitted by the three organizations from which the Attorney General is now requesting information (copies of which were previously provided to the Attorney General’s office) and all were appropriately funded by the Foundation,” said Alistair Dawson, a Houston trial attorney who serves as the foundation’s president. “These grants were consistent with our mission statement and were not intended to ‘aid and abet the invasion of illegal immigrants’ as Attorney General Paxton alleges.”
Disclosure: The State Bar of Texas has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in Tribune journalism. A complete list of financial supporters can be found here.
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