(CN) - Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued one of the state's most populous counties Wednesday over a program that funds legal representation for immigrants in removal proceedings.
The Bexar County Commissioners Court voted in December to provide $566,181 to the American Gateways organization as part of the county's Immigration Legal Services fund. Established in 2024, the program gives funding to nonprofits to provide legal representation for immigrants facing deportation. Paxton cites reporting by a local news outlet indicating the total amount the county has allocated for the program may be more than $1 million.
In a petition filed in Bexar County District Court, Paxton argues the program violates the Texas Constitution's gift clause, which the state Supreme Court has ruled prohibits the provision of public funds to private entities unless the funds are used for a public benefit and the government retains sufficient control over the funds to ensure that public purpose is actually achieved.
"Bexar County has made a politically charged decision to spend taxpayer dollars to subsidize noncitizens contesting federal immigration enforcement, a purpose that serves no public benefit," Paxton writes in the complaint. "Bexar County also fails to retain sufficient control to ensure any purported public purpose is achieved. Bexar County delegates all operational discretion to the private nonprofit recipients, which operate as independent legal-service providers entirely outside Bexar County's supervision."
Paxton seeks a judgment declaring the use of county funds for immigration legal services unlawful and temporary and permanent injunctions blocking the funding.
"Leftists in Bexar County have no authority to use taxpayer dollars to fund their radical, criminal-loving agenda," Paxton said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. "State funds cannot underwrite deportation-defense services for individuals unlawfully present in the country. This use of hardworking Texans' dollars is a flagrant violation of state law and the Texas Constitution."
Paxton filed a similar lawsuit in November against Harris County.
In response to a request for comment on the lawsuit, Monica Ramos, the public information officer for the Office of the Bexar County Manager, told Courthouse News Service that the county does not comment on pending litigation.
American Gateways did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit, but at the Dec. 16 meeting where the commissioners court voted to approve the funding, American Gateways attorney Laura Flores-Dixit told the court that the "vast majority" of the organization's clients are children and families "who were arrested while lawfully attending immigration court proceedings."
"Since June, the immigration court in San Antonio has become a target for arrests, not only of adults, but of children as well," Flores-Dixit said. "The Bexar County immigrant legal defense fund has allowed us to obtain release for six children who were in immigrant detention. We are currently representing six children who are currently in immigration detention. Those are the types of cases that we are prioritizing utilizing Bexar County immigrant legal defense funding."
Source: Courthouse News Service
