Texas AG sues Bexar County over legal aid for undocumented immigrants

By Eleanor Klibanoff, The Texas Tribune
November 11, 2025

Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Bexar County on Wednesday to shut down a program that uses county funds to help undocumented people access legal support. In December, a judge rejected a similar lawsuit Paxton’s office filed against Harris County.

Bexar County, home to San Antonio, allocated more than $566,000 to its Immigration Legal Services program in mid-December. The county first launched the initiative in May 2024, giving $1 million to two nonprofits that help people facing deportations get lawyers.

After a district judge rejected Paxton’s efforts to shut down Harris County’s program, then-County Attorney Christian Menefee dismissed the case as a “cheap political stunt.”

“Harris County will not be intimidated or pushed around by state officials who are more interested in pandering than governing,” Menefee said.

The Harris County Jail leads the nation in ICE detainers — a request from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to hold a person for deportation — as federal and state immigration enforcement has kicked into high gear under President Donald Trump. 

The background: When Harris County started the Immigrant Legal Services Fund in 2020, it was the largest county in the United States without a program aimed at helping undocumented immigrants get legal counsel. Austin, Dallas and San Antonio already had similar programs. 

County Judge Lina Hidalgo proposed the program, which passed on 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 at the time, according to the Houston Chronicle. 

The program sends county dollars to five organizations: BakerRipley, the Galveston-Houston Immigrant Representation Project, Justice for All Immigrants, KIND, Inc. and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Service.

Why Texas is suing: Paxton argues in both lawsuits that these programs “serve no public purpose and instead constitute unconstitutional grants of public funds to private entities to subsidize individual deportation defenses.”

He has asked judges to stop officials in Harris and Bexar counties from disbursing funds to these organizations immediately, and bar them from doing so in the future. 

Paxton has filed similar lawsuits against the cities of Austin and San Antonio over their support of nonprofit organizations that help Texans access abortions. In June, the 15th Court of Appeals ruled in his favor, blocking San Antonio from using the funds the city had allocated to potentially help people who needed to travel out of the state for abortions. 

What local officials say: A Bexar County spokesperson declined to comment. But when county leaders approved the funding, Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores said it was part of their commitment to “fight for human rights.”

A representative from American Gateways, the group that receives the bulk of the funding, said their primary clients are families and children, Texas Public Radio reported.

Commissioner Grant Moody, who was the sole vote against the funding, said he was worried about a lawsuit from Paxton if they approved the funding.

But Harris County officials say they are confident their victory in court will be upheld. After the Harris County ruling in December, Menefee, who recently won a special election to represent the 18th Congressional District, accused Paxton of cherry-picking facts about the program and ignoring its “clear public purpose.”

“These are people who live here, work here, pay taxes, and contribute every single day to Harris County,” Menefee, who is in a runoff for the 18th Congressional District, said. “Making sure they can resolve their immigration status strengthens our economy, keeps families together, and makes our community safer.”

In a statement, Menefee and members of the Harris County Commissioners’ Court accused Paxton of using this program to bolster his conservative credentials during a heated primary for U.S. Senate.

“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.”

After the October vote to allocate funding for the legal defense program, Commissioner Rodney Ellis said in a statement that it was necessary because of the increase in immigration raids. 

“Having access to legal representation not only improves case outcomes but helps keep families together,” he said in a statement, according to the Houston Chronicle. “In a county as diverse as ours, local government must step up to safeguard safety, justice, and the people we serve.”

This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.