The Texas Attorney General’s Office has ended its effort to shut down Annunciation House, filing a notice of nonsuit with prejudice on Monday. The filing permanently bars the office from bringing another lawsuit with similar allegations against the El Paso migrant shelter network, according to El Paso Matters. Paxton had accused the organization of harboring and human smuggling.
The dispute began Feb. 7, 2024, when Paxton’s office sent Annunciation House a demand letter seeking to examine its records, including information about people it had served, according to El Paso Matters. The organization sued the next day to challenge the demand. Paxton later alleged it was engaged in harboring, human smuggling and stash-house activity, and sought to revoke its Texas nonprofit registration and shut it down. Founder Ruben Garcia has denied the allegations.
A Legal Back-and-Forth That Reached the State's Highest Court
An El Paso district court judge ruled against the state on July 2, 2024, finding the statutes Paxton invoked unenforceable because they were pre-empted by federal law, according to the same outlet’s earlier reporting. The Texas Supreme Court reversed that decision in May 2025 and later denied Annunciation House’s request for a rehearing. The high court did not decide the merits of Paxton’s allegations against the nonprofit; it ruled on the statutes underlying his investigation, the El Paso Times reported.
After the Texas Supreme Court’s ruling, the case was headed back to an El Paso district court for a hearing scheduled for March, and Garcia was set to be deposed later this week, according to El Paso Matters. The nonsuit ends the case before that hearing. The Texas Tribune reported that Paxton’s office had not immediately responded to a request for comment.
Founder Points to Election Results, Calls for Legislative Fix
Garcia attributed Paxton's decision to drop the suit to the recent midterm elections, in which Democrats swept several key Texas seats, and said he was gratified the case had ended and wanted the state legislature to act to prevent similar cases from being brought against nonprofits in the future, as noted by El Paso Matters; the Texas Tribune also reported his comments.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar called the dismissal long-overdue good news, and said Democratic leadership would redirect state resources toward important issues rather than what she characterized as partisan bullying, per the Texas Tribune's reporting. Democratic state Sen. Nathan Johnson, the attorney general-elect, said he intends to review the cases Paxton brought during his tenure, the outlet reported.
A Shelter Network Nearly Five Decades in the Making
Annunciation House traces back to 1976, when Garcia and four other young adults began meeting to find ways to serve El Paso's poor and homeless, particularly undocumented immigrants who had been turned away from other shelters. The organization was formally established in February 1978, and per a report from El Paso Matters, it has since served more than half a million people. In 2023, Annunciation House became the focal organization sheltering thousands of migrants who arrived in El Paso during a major influx.
What Border Patrol encounter totals measure
Encounter totals can count the same person more than once: according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Homeland Security Statistics, CBP tables count a person again if they are encountered multiple times during a reporting period. The totals therefore measure encounters, not necessarily distinct people.
The case against Annunciation House was not an isolated move. Over the two years before the dismissal, Paxton's office launched investigations into at least a dozen organizations, with at least 10 of those records requests sent to nonprofits serving immigrants, according to the El Paso Times. That same report named Jolt Initiative, a Latino voter-engagement nonprofit, among the groups whose operations had drawn scrutiny from Paxton's probes.
Paxton's departure from the Attorney General's Office is approaching regardless of the Annunciation House outcome. He unsuccessfully sought a U.S. Senate seat in the Nov. 3 midterm election and plans to leave the office in mid-January, according to El Paso Matters.
