Paxton's office said Monday that Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center had included a series of baseless statements in an emergency motion to the court in September in response to a civil investigative demand, or CID. Las Americas has claimed it is the first immigration legal services nonprofit to receive a CID under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act and claims Paxton's office is trying to "bully" it for "political reasons."
Paxton's office said it had legitimate reason to suspect "likely fraudulent" activities and issued the CID seeking copies of the nonprofit's communications with the federal government about the government's CHNV program — which allows Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuelan nationals to apply for entry to the U.S. — and informational documents that it provides to applicants.
Las Americas filed a temporary restraining order Sept. 25 to block the CID, which was ultimately denied by U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama.
In that motion, Las Americas claimed that it could suffer "irreparable harm" without the court blocking Paxton's CID. Once the court declined to halt the CID, Paxton said Las Americas submitted a response within hours with a privilege log identifying 11 documents that Las Americas said were confidential.
"In other words, when it didn't get the emergency relief that it wanted, Las Americas made an immediate about-face," Paxton's office said. "It stopped complaining about the supposed substantial interference that the CID caused, and instead, took a polar opposite position — claiming that it, in fact, has no informational documents that it provides to persons seeking to use the fraud-ridden program and 'does not regularly engage' with persons seeking to use the program."
Las Americas misrepresented the impact the CID would have on its operations in an effort to get the court to block it, Paxton argued, as indicated by its eventual response to the CID.
Las Americas claimed in its complaint to have stopped giving interviews in the media due to the CID. Paxton's office said this was false since hours after filing, "Las Americas gave what appeared to be a preplanned media interview regarding the lawsuit and initiated a social media blitz."
The nonprofit also claimed that responding to the CID would be burdensome since it had limited resources that would have to be diverted away from its mission.
"That statement is irreconcilable with Las Americas' CID response," Paxton said. "Las Americas produced a two-page letter that mostly just re-printed what the CID asked for and asserted that Las Americas is 'not in possession of any information responsive' to three out of four CID requests."
Counsel for the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Las Americas is represented by Thomas Melsheimer, Ashley Wright, Michael Bittner and Scott Thomas of Winston & Strawn LLP and Daniel Hatoum, Erin Thorn, Kassandra Gonzalez and Travis Fife of the Texas Civil Rights Project.
Texas is represented by Edward Marshall and Robert Farquharson of the Office of the Attorney General of Texas.
The case is Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center v. Paxton, case number 3:24-cv-00352, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
--Additional reporting by Britain Eakin. Editing by Rich Mills.
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