Paxton sues Bexar County over immigrant legal fund
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is suing Bexar County over funding immigrant legal services, he announced Wednesday.
Why it matters: The lawsuit ramps up already-high political tensions over how local governments should and should not handle immigration issues.
Zoom in: Paxton, who is running for U.S. Senate, says the county doesn't have the authority to fund such legal services.
- "These expenditures serve no public purpose and instead constitute unconstitutional grants of public funds to private entities to subsidize individual deportation defenses," the lawsuit states.
- It names the county, Bexar County Commissioners Court and individual commissioners.
Flashback: Bexar County commissioners voted in December to continue funding legal services for immigrants facing deportation, reallocating about $566,000 to the nonprofit American Gateways.
- Commissioner Grant Moody, the lone Republican on the court and the only vote against the funding, told KENS in December: "You have a program using taxpayer dollars that are potentially keeping violent repeat offenders here in the United States, defending them from deportation, and that's just crazy."
- The "vast majority" of American Gateways' clients are families and "children who were arrested while lawfully attending immigration court proceedings," Laura Flores-Dixit, an attorney with the nonprofit, said, per KENS.
State of play: Bexar County began funding immigration legal services in May 2024, putting a combined $1 million toward American Gateways and RAICES to offer free assistance to immigrants.
- "We are not making an adjudication as a court … on who is here legally or not," Commissioner Justin Rodriguez said, per KENS. "What we are simply saying is there is a process that needs to happen."
What they're saying: "Leftists in Bexar County have no authority to use taxpayer dollars to fund their radical, criminal-loving agenda," Paxton said in a statement Wednesday.
- "Bexar County does not comment on pending litigation," county spokesperson Monica Ramos tells Axios.
- A spokesperson for Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai, and representatives with American Gateways, did not immediately respond to Axios' requests for comment.
Zoom out: Paxton sued Harris County in November over similarly spending $1.3 million on immigration assistance programs.
- About a month later, a Harris County judge declined to block the program.
What's next: Paxton is seeking an emergency order to halt the funding and to stop the county from entering into, or renewing, any related contracts.