For now. It’s the first step.
Still a crook any way you look
An attempt by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to stop Harris County from funding legal services for immigrants facing deportation hit a roadblock Tuesday after a district court judge denied his office’s request for a preliminary injunction.
It’s the latest in a suit that came nearly five years after commissioners created the Immigrant Legal Services Fund, or ILSF, to provide deportation defense services. Commissioners voted 4-1 on Oct. 16 to spend $1.3 million to renew the county’s contract with the five nonprofits that operate the program, prompting a lawsuit from Paxton. The attorney general labeled the program “evil and wicked,” and alleged it violated the Texas Constitution’s gift clause, which prohibits the use of public funds to provide gifts to individuals or private corporations.
The Harris County Attorney’s Office rebuked Paxton’s claim in a 41-page response filed Dec. 5. Attorneys for the office pointed to the program’s five-year tenure, during which time the state “has stood silently by ‘slumbering on its rights,'” as well as the intrinsic public benefit of protecting the county’s immigrant community and the steps officials have taken to ensure money allocated to the program is used to support its stated goal.
“These programs were properly created by Harris County Commissioners Court for the benefit of Harris County and its residents,” the county attorney’s office wrote in its Dec. 5 response to Paxton’s complaint. “The State’s meritless, conclusory and unsupported allegations do not change this reality.”
Commissioners voted to create the ILSF in November 2020 to provide legal representation to migrants facing deportation, who are not generally afforded an attorney since their cases are considered civil proceedings. The program built on a 2018 decision to launch the Immigration Resource Hotline, which connects people seeking immigration assistance with legal information and advocacy organizations.
The county attorney’s office argued that both programs helprelieve strain on social services and reduce expenses related to unnecessary detentions, and therefore do not violate Texas’ gift clause.
Judge Takasha Francis, who is overseeing the case, rejected Paxton’s attempt to halt the program as the case proceeds, but she also denied the county attorney’s attempt to have it dismissed outright. Attorneys for the county attempted to argue that Paxton did not have the authority to bring the case in district court and that the state lacked standing to prosecute the suit.
Paxton’s office appealed Francis’ decision Wednesday to reject its request for a preliminary injunction.
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A tentative trial date for the case was set for December 2026. Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said in a Tuesday news release that Paxton’s lawsuit was an “attempt to chase headlines” at the expense of the county’s most vulnerable residents.
See here for the background, and here for the full statement from the Harris County Attorney’s office. It’s kind of wild to me that the trial date is set for a year from now. That’s far enough away that the matter would be under the purview of a new AG, one who (if we are lucky) will have a very different view of the situation. Fingers crossed. In the meantime, we’ll see how the appellate process plays out.