HOUSTON – A Latino civil rights organization is asking a state court to reject Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request to shut down a Houston nonprofit while his office pursues a legal challenge to the group’s charter.
MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund) and Carlos R. Soltero, an Austin-based attorney, represent FIEL, a Houston-based group that works with immigrants and their families. Attorneys were in court on Thursday arguing Paxton has no authority over federal tax status and that Paxton’s actions are in retaliation for FIEL’s advocacy for immigrants.
“Texas’s Attorney General does not have the authority to bring this lawsuit,” said MALDEF Southwest Regional Counsel Fátima Menéndez. “This most recent attack by the Texas Attorney General demonstrates his reckless leadership, retaliatory nature, and unwavering desire to target nonprofit organizations that he disagrees with. MALDEF is honored to defend FIEL in this litigation, an organization who serves immigrants and families in need in Houston.”
The hearing follows a request filed in state court last month by Paxton seeking to terminate FIEL’s corporate charter based on Paxton’s claim that FIEL should not have 501c3, a tax status issued by the federal Internal Revenue Service to religious organizations and other nonprofits based on their charitable programs.
Attorneys for FIEL argue that Paxton has no authority to sue FIEL because “there is no room for Paxton to impose his own rules regarding the conduct of 501c3 organizations,” according to court documents filed by MALDEF.
“Since our inception in 2007, FIEL has done everything we can to help the greater Houston area and its members, regardless of their immigration status,” said FIEL Executive Director Cesar Espinosa. “It comes to us as a surprise that suddenly we are being targeted by the Attorney General of Texas in an attempt to take away what has been a beacon of hope for thousands of Houstonians for the last 17 years. From disaster relief to higher education to letting people know about their rights, FIEL has been there in the search for equity and fairness for all Texans.”
Attorneys for FIEL say Paxton is retaliating against the organization because it speaks out in defense of immigrants and is a plaintiff in two ongoing lawsuits challenging Texas’ election laws.
“The current holder of the attorney general’s office has chosen to target a group that helps some of the most vulnerable members of our community,” said Soltero. “The fact that the state used taxpayer resources to file this legal challenge underscores how this office under the current office holder engages in retaliation, content-based state action to try to chill expression, and selective enforcement against groups it disagrees with. Moreover, the relief sought and the procedure used to punish FIEL is not only unprecedented but also contrary to due process.”
In recent months, Paxton has aggressively used lawsuits to target nonprofit groups with whose content or mission he disagrees.
In July, a state judge ruled against Paxton’s effort to shut down Annunciation House, an El Paso nonprofit that operates a migrant shelter, writing that Paxton “chose to harass a human rights organization with impunity and with disregard to his duty to faithfully uphold the laws of Texas and the United States.” Also in July, a different state judge ruled against Paxton’s request to force a deposition of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in his investigation of that organization.
Read the brief HERE.