Texas Sues County for Allocating $1.3 Million to Aid Groups (1)

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is suing the Harris County Commissioners Court over its decision to allocate roughly $1.34 million in taxpayer funds to nonprofits that provide legal aid to immigrants in deportation proceedings.

“Harris 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 said in a petition for injunctive relief filed Monday in Texas District Court, Harris County.

The Harris County Commissioners Court, which governs the county that contains most of the city of Houston, voted Oct. 16 to allocate $1.34 million in county funds to nonprofits to provide legal representation for individuals who are detained by immigration authorities or are facing deportation proceedings. The funds will be available Jan. 1.

The commissioners also approved an additional $100,000 on Oct. 30 to set up an immigrant resource hotline to connect individuals to those same legal aid groups.

“These expenditures serve no public purpose,” Paxton said, and are unconstitutional grants of taxpayer funds to subsidize private deportation defenses.

The county “exercises no meaningful oversight” of how the organizations select or represent clients, nor has the county adopted any eligibility standards or review process to ensure the funds are used for a public purpose, Paxton said. The expenditures also don’t provide any reciprocal public benefit or consideration to Harris County, the petition says.

Public statements made by Harris County commissioners show the move was motivated by opposition to the Trump administration’s federal immigration enforcement actions, he added, rather than a legitimate public purpose.

Commissioner Adrian Garcia in a statement to Bloomberg Law said “we don’t apologize for legally assisting people who contribute to our economic engine, especially people who have served in our military.”

Commissioner Lesley Briones in a separate statement called the lawsuit “an unjustified attack on our legal system and fundamental fairness,” adding that the commissioners “will fight to protect everyone who has a legal pathway to citizenship and avoid needless family separations in the pursuit of the American Dream.”

The case is State of Tex. v. Harris Cnty., Tex. Dist. Ct., No. 202585662, petition filed 11/10/25.