Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sues Bexar County, alleging misuse of taxpayer funds for the legal defense of migrants facing deportation.
BEXAR COUNTY, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a lawsuit against Bexar County, alleging the county violated the Texas Constitution by funding legal services for immigrants through its immigration legal defense fund.
The lawsuit, filed this week, targets a county program launched in 2024 that allocated taxpayer money to nonprofit organizations providing free legal assistance to immigrants facing deportation proceedings.
Bexar County Commissioner Grant Moody, the lone commissioner to oppose the program, said the lawsuit was expected.
“We said that this was likely to happen, and here we are,” Moody said.
The county initially approved $1 million for the program, splitting the funding between two nonprofits — American Gateways and RAICES. In December, county commissioners approved an additional $566,000 for American Gateways. The lawsuit focuses on the decision made in December.
Moody said he has concerns about oversight and transparency, including how clients are screened.
“They’ve apparently served over 80 clients — so who are the 80 clients?” Moody said. “We’ve asked those questions and haven’t gotten any answers.”
Moody said he is particularly concerned about a lack of safeguards to ensure clients do not have a criminal history.
American Gateways has previously said the clients it serves through the program primarily consist of families.
Commissioner Justin Rodriguez, who led the initiative, defended the program during an interview with KENS 5 in December, saying the county was not responsible for determining a person’s legal status.
“We are not making an adjudication as a court on who is here legally or not,” Rodriguez said at the time. “What we are simply saying is there is a process that needs to happen, and through that process they need to be represented by someone with expertise.”
In the 41-page lawsuit, Paxton alleges Bexar County violated the Texas Constitution by using public funds for legal services related to deportation, which the attorney general argues is a civil matter and not a county responsibility.
“State funds cannot underwrite deportation-defense services for individuals unlawfully present in the country,” Paxton said. “This use of hardworking Texans’ dollars is a flagrant violation of state law and the Texas Constitution.”
Moody said the county knowingly exposed itself to legal action.
“This was bad policy,” Moody said. “It creates a risk to public safety, it’s a waste of taxpayer dollars, and we walked into this lawsuit fully knowing Harris County had already been sued, and then we did the same thing.”
Paxton has already sued Harris County over a similar immigrant legal defense fund. That case remains ongoing, though a judge denied the attorney general’s request to temporarily halt Harris County’s program.
Paxton is also asking a judge to pause the Bexar County program administered by American Gateways.
See the full lawsuit below:
American Gateways did not respond to a request for comment. Rodriguez and Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said they could not comment due to the ongoing litigation.