HOUSTON — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Harris County, accusing local officials of unlawfully spending about $1.3 million in taxpayer funds on a program that helps immigrants fight deportation. 

 

Paxton argues that the county’s Immigrant Legal Services Fund, which pays nonprofit groups to provide legal defense for people in removal proceedings, violates the state constitution by gifting public money to a private purpose with no clear public benefit.

The Harris County Commissioners Court, led by a Democratic majority, created the Immigrant Legal Services Fund in 2020 and voted 4-1 last month to renew it with roughly $1.34 million in funding. 

 

The fund channels county dollars to five organizations, including local charities like BakerRipley and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), to provide attorneys for residents facing deportation. To qualify for assistance, families must reside in Harris County, be in deportation proceedings and earn below 80% of the area’s median income.

 

County leaders say the initiative ensures low-income immigrants have legal counsel in complex proceedings where no public defender is provided.

 

Paxton, a Republican, has sharply criticized the county’s immigration defense funding in moral and legal terms. In a statement announcing the suit, he denounced the expenditure as “blatantly unconstitutional” and “evil and wicked,” accusing “left-wing radicals” of “robbing Texans” by using public money to oppose lawful deportations. 

 

His lawsuit invokes Texas’s “Gift Clause,” a constitutional ban on giving public funds to private entities for non-public purposes, and claims the program serves “no public purpose.” 

 

The filing also asserts that Harris County exercises “no meaningful oversight” of how the nonprofits select or represent clients, noting the county set “no…eligibility standards or review process” to ensure the funds yield a tangible public benefit. 

 

Paxton is urging a judge to block the allocated dollars from reaching the organizations and to bar the county from similar spending in the future.

 

Harris County officials defend the legality and intent of the Immigrant Legal Services Fund. County Attorney Christian Menefee said the program is “perfectly legal” and vowed to “fight back” against Paxton’s challenge in court 

 

He dismissed the lawsuit as “a cheap political stunt,” arguing that at a time when President Donald Trump’s administration has unleashed aggressive immigration raids, local leaders should stand up for their communities. 

 

“When the president has unleashed ICE agents to terrorize immigrant neighborhoods, deport U.S. citizens, and trample the law, it’s shameful that Republican state officials are joining in instead of standing up for Texans,” Menefee said in a statement.

 

Supporters of the county’s initiative insist it serves a legitimate public interest by bolstering due process and community stability. When Harris County launched the fund in 2020, it was the largest U.S. county without a program to help immigrants obtain lawyers; other Texas cities like Austin, Dallas and San Antonio already had similar legal-aid efforts in place. 

 

Advocates note that immigrants facing deportation are not entitled to a government-appointed attorney, and many must otherwise appear in court alone. 

 

“When you have a family at a deportation hearing and they don’t have an attorney, they’re deported at a much higher rate – like 90% of the time, compared to 5% of the time when they do have an attorney,” County Judge Lina Hidalgo said when proposing the fund, citing the dramatic impact legal representation has on outcomes. 

 

Nationwide, only about one-third of immigrants in deportation proceedings have legal counsel in their cases, according to federal data.

 

Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis said the recent funding was necessary amid an uptick in immigration enforcement raids. 

 

“Having access to legal representation not only improves case outcomes but helps keep families together,” Ellis said, emphasizing that in a diverse county, “local government must step up to safeguard safety, justice, and the people we serve.” 

 

Fellow Commissioner Adrian Garcia also defended the program, telling Bloomberg Law that the county makes no apologies for “legally assisting people who contribute to our economic engine, especially people who have served in our military.” 

 

He and others argue the fund promotes fairness for law-abiding immigrant residents, including some veterans, who might otherwise be swept up in deportation due to lack of legal help. 

 

Commissioner Lesley Briones called Paxton’s suit “an unjustified attack on our legal system and fundamental fairness,” saying the county will “fight to protect everyone who has a legal pathway to citizenship and avoid needless family separations.”

 

Local critics of the Immigrant Legal Services Fund, however, contend that it misuses public money and undermines law enforcement. 

 

Republican Commissioner Tom Ramsey voted against the allocation, and several residents spoke out in opposition at the public meeting where the funding was approved. 

 

“I stand with Commissioner Ramsey in opposing Harris County’s decision to spend over $1 million—taxpayer dollars—on legal defense for individuals who are in this country illegally,” said Barbara Denson, a civil advocate running for the state board of education. 

 

“That money, our money, should be going to support law enforcement, maintain our roads and bridges, and handle our water issues, not to shield those who have broken our immigration laws,” she told the court. 

 

Aliza Dutt, the mayor of a Houston-area town and a candidate for county judge, argued the county was putting “illegal immigrants first and taxpayers last.” 

 

“Our court is considering sending $1.3 million of your hard-earned money to radical activist groups to help illegal immigrants fight deportation,” Dutt said, criticizing the grant to nonprofits while local sheriff’s deputies are “stretched thin” responding to community needs.

 

Such opponents assert that scarce public funds would be better spent on policing, infrastructure and services for law-abiding citizens.

 

Paxton filed the lawsuit in state district court in Harris County on Nov. 10 and is seeking an injunction to halt the county’s immigrant legal aid funding immediately. The case will test the scope of Texas’s gift-of-public-funds clause and could have implications for similar legal defense programs elsewhere in the state. 

 

Paxton, who is currently campaigning for a U.S. Senate seat, has pursued a series of high-profile legal challenges against local policies he views as unlawful. Earlier this year, he used a comparable approach to successfully block the City of San Antonio from subsidizing abortion access through nonprofits, a move upheld by an appellate court in June. 

 

Now, with immigration enforcement intensifying under the Trump administration, Paxton’s lawsuit signals Texas leaders’ willingness to confront local immigrant assistance initiatives on constitutional grounds. 

 

Harris County officials say they are prepared to defend the Immigrant Legal Services Fund, setting the stage for a courtroom battle pitting state fiscal and legal authority against local efforts to provide counsel for the vulnerable.