Last week’s news that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wanted to close a Catholic migrant shelter in El Paso struck many as an unfair attack on migrants and the faith groups that help them. Catholic leaders, in particular, were outraged that Paxton targeted Annunciation House, which has housed migrants for five decades, as part of the state’s growing efforts to secure the border and crack down on illegal immigration.
On one level, the outrage is understandable. Why attack a Catholic charity that is simply trying to help feed and clothe migrant families? Are not all Christians called to care for the poor and welcome strangers? Is this not an attack on religious freedom and vulnerable migrants?
That’s the argument deployed by Annunciation House and its high-profile advocates, including El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz. In a statement last week, Seitz denounced what he called “a growing campaign of intimidation, fear and dehumanization in the state of Texas” and “the targeting of those who would offer assistance in response to their faith “. According to the bishop, the House of the Annunciation simply acts out of a “Catholic commitment to the poor”.
But the indignation is misplaced and the bishop is wrong. Helping the poor and welcoming the stranger does not mean becoming complicit in what amounts to the largest human trafficking operation in history, and Texas has every right to scrutinize nonprofits like Annunciation House. The border crisis is large and complex, and it involves many actors, some of whom are bad.
Part of what Paxton is trying to understand is whether Annunciation House actively aids illegal immigration. In a statement Last week, Paxton’s office suggested the shelter could “facilitate illegal entry into the United States, harboring aliens, human trafficking, and operating a safe house.”
This statement was met with predictable disbelief by the press, who presented the story as if Texas were persecuting Catholics simply trying to help the poor, leveling outrageous accusations against them in an attempt to label anyone who helps the poor as a criminal. migrants.
“Everyone who crosses the border is a victim of trafficking. »
But that’s not what’s happening here. The main thing to understand is that everyone who crosses the border has been trafficked. Some 10 million illegal aliens have not entered the United States spontaneously over the past three years. They are part of a vast for-profit enterprise, a human pipeline that stretches from Mexico through much of Central and South America, and continues into the United States.
What many Americans don’t realize is that no one crosses the border without paying, and often payments continue long after migrants arrive. The funds sent abroad will not only be used to support migrant families. They often also reach out to cartels and associated smuggling organizations, to which migrants are still heavily indebted. By taking control of illegal immigration and charging every man, woman and child who wants to cross the border, and then continuing to charge them after they arrive, the cartels have effectively created a tax base within the U.S. . Migrants who arrive here are often debt slaves to the criminal networks they relied on to gain entry.
That’s one reason why shelters like Annunciation House, which received millions of dollars in public funds from the Biden administration, have rightly attracted the attention of the Texas attorney general’s office. After all, these shelters don’t just provide migrants with food and a place to sleep for a few nights. They also serve as hubs for the black market of illegal immigration. When migrants arrive at a place like Annunciation House, they often receive help obtaining bus or plane tickets, connecting with employers or extended networks across the United States, and often provide the means to get to their destination.
Many migrants are highly motivated to get where they are going as soon as possible because they need to start working to be able to send payments, not only to their families back home, but also to the cartels who know the identity and location where their families are. Cartels have developed sophisticated ways of collecting and verifying information about migrants passing through their territory, and often demand additional payments once migrants arrive in the United States and begin earning higher wages.
In Mexico, those who cannot pay, who may be out of money by the time they reach northern Mexico, are often held in hideouts until funds can be extracted from their remaining family members. in the country. This is common in Mexican border towns, where not only local law enforcement, but also the National Guard and federal immigration agents are part of the human trafficking network. These debts, whether contracted by the migrant or by his family, must be paid. One of the horrible realities of the border is that payment is often demanded, in kind, from women and girls, who are regularly raped by smugglers and cartel associates.
But sexual assault in Mexico is not the only danger migrants face. Some, after arriving in the United States, are not only debt slaves, but are actually forced to work as part of a deal to keep their families safe. As places such as the House of the Annunciation function as hideouts, that is, places where migrants must stay until they are able to pay what they owe or until travel arrangements can be made, however, they advance the work of criminal organizations. inadvertently.
And make no mistake: these criminal networks operate all over the United States. From the drivers who pick up migrants outside Texas border towns and transport them to Interior Border Patrol checkpoints to employers across the country who hire migrant labor for slave wages, the crisis is not limited to the border. It is a system built on coercion, exploitation and violence. And even well-meaning Catholics who frequent shelters like Annunciation House can end up becoming part of this system by helping migrants cross the border illegally. There is nothing compassionate, and even less Christian, about contributing to the smooth running of smugglers.
