{"id":173556,"date":"2026-02-20T23:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/173556\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T23:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:39:12","slug":"judge-rules-paxton-cant-sue-bexar-county-for-immigration-fund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/173556\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge rules Paxton can’t sue Bexar County for immigration fund"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Bexar County district judge on Friday ruled that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton does not have the legal authority to sue Bexar County over its immigration legal services fund<\/a>, blocking the state\u2019s attempt to halt county funding for the initiative.<\/p>\n

Mary Lou Alvarez of the 45th Civil District Court granted the county\u2019s motion requiring the attorney general to show his authority to bring the lawsuit, finding Paxton\u2019s office failed to identify any constitutional or statutory basis allowing it to sue the county in this case.<\/p>\n

Under the judge\u2019s order, Paxton and attorneys from his office may no longer appear in the case on behalf of the state. The court set a status hearing for Feb. 27 at 1:30 p.m., giving any party with proper authority the opportunity to appear. If no authorized party does so, the state\u2019s pleadings will be struck.<\/p>\n

Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said the decision reinforces the county\u2019s position that its immigration legal services program serves a public purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a ruling that supports our legal position and our support for children and families,\u201d Sakai said. \u201cToday, Bexar County has an immigration legal services program that serves a public purpose for children and families.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai said the decision reinforces the county\u2019s position that its immigration legal services program serves a public purpose. Credit: Diego Medel \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

County attorneys emphasized that the ruling did not address the merits of the attorney general\u2019s claims, including allegations that the program violates the Texas Constitution\u2019s Gift Clause. Instead, the judge halted the case at the threshold question of whether Paxton has the authority to bring it at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Texas attorney general, under our constitution, has limited authority,\u201d said Lisa Cubriel, the assistant civil district attorney who argued the case for the county. \u201cAbsent express constitutional authority or authority provided through the Texas Legislature, He doesn\u2019t have the authority to just sue counties on their use of discretionary funding decisions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Larry Roberson, chief of the county\u2019s civil division, noted that the case has not yet been fully dismissed, with the Feb. 27 hearing allowing time for a party with proper authority to appear. He added that, to his knowledge, no such agency exists that could step in and continue the case.<\/p>\n

\"\"Larry Roberson, chief of the county\u2019s civil division, noted that the case has not yet been fully dismissed, with the final hearing scheduled for Feb. 27 . Credit: Diego Medel \/ San Antonio Report<\/p>\n

During the hearing, county attorneys argued that Paxton\u2019s office improperly relied on the Texas Supreme Court\u2019s decision in Paxton v. Annunciation House<\/a>, which addressed the attorney general\u2019s authority in a different legal context involving a nonprofit organization.<\/p>\n

Judge Alvarez repeatedly pressed Paxton\u2019s counsel to point to specific constitutional or statutory language \u2014 or pinpoint citations in that opinion \u2014 authorizing the attorney general to sue Bexar County over discretionary budget decisions. The court ultimately ruled that broad references to case law or claims of inherent authority were insufficient absent an express grant of power from the Constitution or Legislature.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit was originally filed to challenge<\/a> Bexar County\u2019s decision to allocate more than $566,000 to its Immigration Legal Services Fund, which supports legal representation for immigrants facing federal deportation proceedings through a contract with American Gateways.<\/p>\n

County funding for the program is set to expire on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been in place for over a year. Here we are \u2014 the attorney general filed suit in early February, and it ends Feb. 28,\u201d said Roberson.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve wasted a tremendous amount of judicial resources, litigation resources and resources from the attorney general\u2019s office \u2014 for a contract that ends in eight days, five business days, next Friday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sakai said decisions about the future of the fund will be considered after the next hearing.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday we went to the court system to defend Bexar County and defend the Commission\u2019s Court decision to provide services for those children and families,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have won today and we\u2019ll be back in about a week, and then we will decide what future services are needed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bexar County district judge on Friday ruled that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton does not have the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[70208,70209,4486,24589,698,63616,63617,1967,28124,70210,28123,3025,82,84,83,70211,3298,92,3028,6251],"class_list":{"0":"post-173556","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-45th-civil-district-court","9":"tag-annuciation-house","10":"tag-attorney-general","11":"tag-attorney-general-ken-paxton","12":"tag-bexar-county","13":"tag-gift-clause","14":"tag-immigration-legal-service-fund","15":"tag-ken-paxton","16":"tag-larry-roberson","17":"tag-lisa-cubriel","18":"tag-mary-lou-alvarez","19":"tag-peter-sakai","20":"tag-san-antonio","21":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","22":"tag-san-antonio-news","23":"tag-texas-constituion","24":"tag-texas-supreme-court","25":"tag-top-story","26":"tag-typedaily","27":"tag-wc-500-750"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173556","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=173556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}