running to represent Texas\u2019 18th Congressional District<\/a>, called the legal defense fund \u201cperfectly legal\u201d in a statement Tuesday. He also said the lawsuit is a \u201ccheap political stunt.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cHarris County has funded this program for years because it’s the right thing to do,\u201d Menefee also said. \u201cWe’re helping people who live in our communities and who contribute every day to our local economy. That’s what good government looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit also asserts that Harris County failed to adopt eligibility standards or a review process to ensure the public funds are used for a \u201cdefined public purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Commissioners\u2019 recent motion to allocate funding for the legal defense services came years after the program was first created in 2020 and funded with $2.5 million. It was approved by commissioners at the time in a 3-2 vote along party lines.<\/p>\n
Some groups condemned the creation of the fund in 2020, arguing governments shouldn\u2019t use taxpayer dollars to defend immigrants. The move was backed by organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and United We Dream.<\/p>\n
In a news release Tuesday, Paxton asserted that the expenditures serve no public purpose and constitute unconstitutional grants of public funds to private entities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must stop the left-wing radicals who are robbing Texans to prevent illegals from being deported by the Trump administration,\u201d Paxton said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Commissioners had little discussion on the recent item before Commissioner Rodney Ellis made a motion to approve the item as presented. Ramsey asked the county legal staff if it is legal for the county to allocate funding to the nonprofits. The legal staff told him it is.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy office will fight back and defend Harris County’s right to lead with fairness, compassion, and common sense, no matter how many times Republican state officials try to erase that,\u201d Menefee said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lucio Vasquez\/Houston Public Media Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on Monday against Harris County after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2941,2441,405,56,58,57,26352,1724,26353,26354,66,223,287,27,26355],"class_list":["post-45234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-ag-ken-paxton","tag-court","tag-harris-county","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-immigrant-legal-services-fund","tag-immigration","tag-immigration-legal-defense","tag-legal-defense","tag-local","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-texas","tag-texas-immigration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45234","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=45234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Legal](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/20200225-IMG_8086-1000x667.jpg\")
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