{"id":212997,"date":"2026-03-20T15:04:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T15:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/212997\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T15:04:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T15:04:07","slug":"paxtons-lawsuit-over-bexar-county-immigration-program-dismissed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/212997\/","title":{"rendered":"Paxton’s lawsuit over Bexar County immigration program dismissed"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Bexar County judge on Friday dismissed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2019s lawsuit challenging the county\u2019s immigration legal services program<\/a>, bringing an end to weeks of legal battles before any court could hear the merits of the case.<\/p>\n

In Bexar County\u2019s presiding court, 408th Civil District Court Judge Angelica Jimenez granted the county\u2019s motion to dismiss filed earlier this week<\/a>, ruling the case is moot after the remaining funds tied to the program were already distributed.<\/p>\n

In a filing to the Texas Supreme Court on Thursday<\/a>, the state acknowledged that outcome, saying because the payments had been distributed the courts could no longer grant the relief originally requested.<\/p>\n

In legal terms, a \u201cmoot\u201d case means there is no longer an active dispute for a court to resolve and any ruling would have no real-world effect.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, filed in early February<\/a>, targeted more than $556,000 in county funding for legal representation for low-income residents facing deportation proceedings. The program contracts with the nonprofit American Gateways to provide those services.<\/p>\n

From the start, the case centered on timing, with the lawsuit filed less than 30 days before the contract was set to expire and its first district court hearing coming just eight days before that deadline.<\/p>\n

Attorneys for the state repeatedly argued<\/a> courts needed to intervene to temporarily block the remaining funds from being released, warning that once the final payment was made, there would be \u201cnothing left to enjoin\u201d and the case would effectively be over.<\/p>\n

Despite multiple attempts<\/a>, the state was unable to secure emergency orders blocking the payment. The 15th Court of Appeals declined<\/a> to stop the funding, and a subsequent request to the Texas Supreme Court was filed<\/a> but not ruled on before the case was dismissed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court no longer has subject-matter jurisdiction over the dispute,\u201d a spokesperson for the county\u2019s civil division said in a statement following the motion to dismiss. \u201cThere is no longer a live controversy between the parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

County officials have defended the program as serving a public purpose by helping residents navigate complex immigration proceedings, while Paxton\u2019s office argued it violates the Texas Constitution\u2019s Gift Clause, which limits how public funds can be used.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, no court ever reached the merits of the case. A district judge initially ruled the attorney general\u2019s office did not have authority<\/a> to bring the lawsuit, setting off a series of appeals and emergency requests that failed to stop the funding from being released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bexar County judge on Friday dismissed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2019s lawsuit challenging the county\u2019s immigration legal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[83360,83361,62721,4486,24589,698,83362,70450,83363,1967,82,84,83,15288,83364,3298,92,3028,6251],"class_list":["post-212997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-15th-courts-of-appeals","tag-408th-civil-district-court","tag-american-gateways","tag-attorney-general","tag-attorney-general-ken-paxton","tag-bexar-county","tag-countys-immigration-legal-services-program","tag-immigration-legal-services","tag-judge-angelice-jimenez","tag-ken-paxton","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton","tag-texas-constitution-gift-clause","tag-texas-supreme-court","tag-top-story","tag-typedaily","tag-wc-500-750"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212997","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=212997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}