1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

Attorney General Ken Paxton is weaponizing a nearly 150-year-old statute to financially cripple nonprofit organizations serving immigrant communities in Texas. This abuse of power demands immediate legislative action to protect vulnerable populations and the organizations that serve them. The "request to examine" statute was created by Texas constitution framers to hold banks and railroads accountable, not to wage culture wars against nonprofits. Over the last two years, Paxton has launched investigations into at least a dozen organizations, primarily immigrant-serving groups, forcing them into expensive legal battles despite never proving his allegations in court. Recent court rulings have granted him sweeping authority to demand internal records and file lawsuits to revoke corporate charters based merely on probable grounds, without requiring evidence before filing. The financial devastation is real and immediate. Powered by People spent over $400,000 defending itself. Spirit Aerosystems' lawyers requested almost $600,000 in fees. Jolt Initiative, a Latino voter engagement nonprofit, has laid off staff and scaled back from registering 12,000 voters in a typical year to just 3,500 this year. These organizations are being crushed by legal costs while defending against unproven claims, including allegations that local election officials have already debunked. Professor Randall Erben from UT School of Law stated that this attorney general has "stretched these tools beyond recognition into the culture wars" and is "writing a playbook" that likely won't stop anytime soon. Organizations like Annunciation House, which operates migrant shelters in El Paso, and FIEL, an immigrant rights organization, face existential threats not because they've been found guilty of wrongdoing, but because they cannot afford endless litigation. I urge you to introduce legislation that reforms the "request to examine" statute to prevent its abuse. Require the attorney general to demonstrate evidence of actual wrongdoing before filing charter revocation lawsuits, and establish protections against using state investigative powers to target organizations based on the populations they serve. Our immigrant communities deserve better than this coordinated attack on those who help them.