(RNS) — Last month, Ken Paxton, Texas attorney general by the grace of God and his state Senate, launched a campaign to shut down a Catholic nonprofit that operates several shelters for migrants and refugees in the El Paso area. As an exercise in hypocrisy, Paxton’s campaign is pretty special.

The opening move came on Feb. 7, when Paxton’s office gave the non-profit, Annunciation House, one day to turn over extensive documentation about the clients it serves. Annunciation House requested a delay, which was turned down, whereupon the nonprofit sued the state.

“Defendants’ unexplained demand for sensitive information,” Annunciation House declared, “infringes on AHI’s constitutional rights, including religious liberty, association, and equal protection, and the privacy rights of third parties, including their sensitive medical, legal, and personal information.” The shelter asked the court to temporarily restrain the state from enforcing its demand and rule on which documents it had to hand over. 

The restraining order came quickly, with a court order finding that if Paxton’s office was allowed to proceed, Annunciation House’s “First Amendment rights to religious liberty and association will be compromised.” Paxton then proceeded to countersue, accusing Annunciation House of “worsening illegal immigration” and demanding that the court immediately dissolve the organization and prohibit it from doing business in Texas.

A second judge then ruled that Paxton had “run roughshod over Annunciation House, without regard to due process or fair play,” thereby enabling Annunciation House to continue to operate pending the result of the civil lawsuit.

Migrant parents talk at the Annunciation House, June 26, 2018, in El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Matt York)

At this point, let us stipulate that Annunciation House has, on its own account, provided assistance to hundreds of thousands of migrants since it was established in 1976. That has, of course, been a religious mission, in line with Jesus’ admonition in the Gospel of Matthew that “whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Underscoring the admonition, statements supporting Annunciation House were issued from the local Catholic bishop, Mark Seitz, the Texas Conference of Catholic Bishops, the California Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty. 

You could be forgiven for thinking that Paxton would show some sensitivity to their concerns. After all, he’s made a career of decrying and joining lawsuits against alleged religious liberty violations — from San Antonio  to Virginia to Colorado.

And yet his complaint does not so much as mention Annunciation House’s claim that shutting it down would violate its religious liberty. Maybe Paxton, dyed-in-the-wool Southern Baptist that he is, doesn’t think Catholics are entitled to such a thing.

Or maybe he’s just trying to make official policy of the longstanding right-wing criticism of religious groups that help migrants coming across the Southern border. As reported by RNS last week, the criticism of Catholic relief agencies has reached a fever pitch in recent months and featured personal attacks on Catholic Charities staffers. 

And at this point let us also stipulate that the guy is not exactly a paragon of intellectual consistency or moral probity: Last summer the Texas House of Representatives voted 121-23 to impeach him on a host of corruption charges, including putting his office at the service of a wealthy businessman in return for the man’s employment of a woman with whom Paxton was having an extramarital affair. That the state Senate acquitted him had something to do with his Trump-like support on the religious right.

And did I mention that since 2015 Paxton has been under indictment for securities fraud? Now it’s being reported that his long-delayed trial, scheduled to start next month, will be resolved by a plea deal requiring him to pay restitution in the six figures, receive advanced legal education and perform some kind of community service.

I suggest they have him do the latter at Annunciation House.