“The court saw this lawsuit for exactly what it was: a cheap political stunt designed to score headlines,” Menefee said. “Harris County will not be intimidated or pushed around by state officials who are more interested in pandering than governing.”
A Texas judge has rejected state Attorney General Ken Paxton’s request to terminate a program that allocates Harris County funds to help undocumented immigrants find and retain legal support.
According to Houston Public Media, Harris County created its Immigrant Legal Services Fund in 2020. In October, the county approved an additional $1.3 million for the program’s continuation.
The program, notes Houston Public Media, distributes funds to organizations that help immigrants fighting deportation orders. Paxton, a conservative and outspoken ally of President Donald Trump, called the group “evil and wicked,” as well as unconstitutional.
On Tuesday, though, a Harris County judge disagreed, refusing to issue any restrictive order against the Immigrant Legal Services Fund. In a statement, Harris County Attorney Christine Menefee said that the ruling is a “clear defeat” for Paxton.
“The court saw this lawsuit for exactly what it was: a cheap political stunt designed to score headlines,” Menefee said. “Harris County will not be intimidated or pushed around by state officials who are more interested in pandering than governing.”
Harris County established the Immigrant Legal Services Fund in 2020. At the time, it was the most populous county in the United States with offering a publicly-funded program to help undocumented immigrants obtain legal support during deportation proceedings.
Houston Public Media notes that the program was proposed by Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo before passing a party-line vote.
“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 percent of the time, compared to like 5 percent of the time when they do have an attorney,” Hidalgo said in 2020.
Paxton, though, says that programs like Harris County’s “serve no public purpose and instead constitute unconstitutional grants of public funds to private entities to subsidize individual deportation defenses.” In court documents, Paxton’s office asked the judge to stop the county from continuing to channel money toward the Immigrant Legal Services Fund and its beneficiary organizations.
Menefee and her allies in county government say that the lawsuit is a political ploy intended to shore up conservative support ahead of Paxton’s bid for a soon-to-be vacant U.S. Senate seat.
“Providing legal support to immigrants who are trying to ‘do it the right way’ was never a concern to the Attorney General’s Office,” Commissioner Adrian Garcia said. “That is, until Ken Paxton decided to run for higher office.”
Sources
Harris County OKs $2.5M to help poor immigrants fight deportations
Texas AG’s lawsuit that sought to shutter Harris County program for undocumented immigrants rejected
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