This story has been updated.<\/p>\n
The suit<\/a> challenges a Dec. 16 vote by commissioners to approve an additional $566,181 for the county\u2019s Immigration Legal Service Fund, which provides legal representation for immigrants facing federal deportation proceedings. <\/p>\n The funding was allocated to American Gateways, a nonprofit legal services organization, that provides free or low-cost, culturally sensitive immigration legal services to low-income immigrants, refugees, and survivors of persecution, torture, and human trafficking.<\/p>\n In the filing, the state argues the spending violates the Texas Constitution\u2019s \u201cGift Clause,\u201d which prohibits local governments from granting public funds to private entities without a clear public benefit. The lawsuit claims deportation proceedings are civil matters \u2014 not criminal \u2014 and that individuals are not entitled to government-funded legal representation.<\/p>\n \u201cLeftists in Bexar County have no authority to use taxpayer dollars to fund their radical, criminal-loving agenda,\u201d said Paxton. \u201cState funds cannot underwrite deportation-defense services for individuals unlawfully present in the country. This use of hardworking Texans\u2019 dollars is a flagrant violation of state law and the Texas Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n The state is seeking a temporary restraining order and permanent injunction to halt any further payments under the program and block the county from renewing or entering similar contracts<\/p>\n Named defendants include Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai, all four county commissioners and James \u201cJim\u201d\u00a0 Bethke, executive director of the county\u2019s Managed Assigned Counsel Office, which administers the immigration legal services program.<\/p>\n Bethke is also currently running in the crowded Democratic primary for Bexar County district attorney<\/a>. His campaign recently received an endorsement from the Texas Organizing Project<\/a>, a progressive group active in criminal justice reform efforts across the state.<\/p>\n In response to the lawsuit, Bexar County Public Information Officer Monica Ramos said the county does not comment on pending litigation.<\/p>\n Precinct 3 Commissioner Grant Moody \u2014 the lone Republican on Commissioners Court \u2014 was the only commissioner to vote against funding the program.<\/p>\n Moody said he had warned his colleagues the policy would lead to legal challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve voted against this three times as it\u2019s come before the court over the past year and a half,\u201d Moody said. \u201cI told my colleagues in December this was going to happen \u2014 a lawsuit was going to happen \u2014 and here we are. Now not only are we wasting taxpayer dollars on a bad policy, but on legal fees trying to defend that bad policy.\u201d<\/p>\n Moody reiterated concerns he said he previously raised about the lack of restrictions on who could receive services under the program.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe it\u2019s a terrible policy and that the vast majority of Bexar County residents don\u2019t want their tax dollars defending repeat or violent offenders from deportation,\u201d he said. \u201cAs we laid out in court in December, it has no limitations on eligibility and who can participate. No guardrails. And it\u2019s completely unacceptable. It\u2019s political malpractice.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that he believes the program undermines public safety, citing what he described as a lack of transparency and oversight.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we ask for some basic nonconfidential, non-privileged information to provide oversight to the program, we\u2019re being denied,\u201d Moody said. \u201cThat\u2019s unacceptable, and we\u2019re going to get to the bottom of it.\u201d<\/p>\n As a named defendant, Moody said he was unable to comment on the merits of the lawsuit.<\/p>\n Precinct 2 Commissioner Justin Rodriguez deferred his response to the county. The San Antonio Report has reached out for comment from all other defendants named in the suit but had not received responses at the time of publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story has been updated. The suit challenges a Dec. 16 vote by commissioners to approve an additional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[62721,698,7269,8775,4383,63616,4041,4805,63617,62505,63618,61173,1967,1932,63619,38278,3025,63620,82,84,83,4479,53506,3028,3219],"class_list":{"0":"post-153902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-american-gateways","9":"tag-bexar-county","10":"tag-bexar-county-commissioners-court","11":"tag-county-judge","12":"tag-district-attorney","13":"tag-gift-clause","14":"tag-grant-moody","15":"tag-icymi","16":"tag-immigration-legal-service-fund","17":"tag-james-bethke","18":"tag-james-jim-bethke","19":"tag-justin-rodriguez","20":"tag-ken-paxton","21":"tag-lawsuit","22":"tag-managed-assigned-counsel","23":"tag-monica-ramos","24":"tag-peter-sakai","25":"tag-rebecca-clay-flores","26":"tag-san-antonio","27":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","28":"tag-san-antonio-news","29":"tag-texas-attorney-general","30":"tag-texas-organizing-project","31":"tag-typedaily","32":"tag-wc-less-than-500"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}