Huffines did not respond to El Paso Matters\u2019 request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perez said the Comptroller\u2019s Office used a financial assessment of EPISD to collect documents unrelated to the district\u2019s finances and operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Social Security number isn\u2019t required to go to school in Texas, and an alternative ID number tells you nothing about a child\u2019s immigration status,\u201d Perez said in the news release. \u201cSo what does a review of central office spending have to do with a count of El Paso children who enrolled without using one?\u201d<\/p>\n
Huffines also asked for budgets, payroll documents, contracts, an electronic copy of the district\u2019s school library catalog and board policies on parents\u2019 complaints about human sexuality curriculum.<\/p>\n
El Paso ISD officials did not immediately respond to El Paso Matters\u2019 request for comment or answer questions about the records provided to the comptroller, but said they\u2019ll have more details during a Friday morning news conference. Hanany did not comment further.<\/p>\n
During a Thursday morning news conference, Perez said he had submitted a legislative records request for information on the scope of the comptroller\u2019s review and the records that were provided to Huffines. He was joined by the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Save Our School Coalition, a grassroots organization that in 2025 protested against the closure of several EPISD schools.<\/p>\n
When asked why he thinks the comptroller would target undocumented students, Perez cited a 2025 CBS interview where Huffines said those students should \u201cgo home.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhen you look at many of the comments that Comptroller Huffines has made before, I think clearly there\u2019s an intent and a motivation that exists within his office,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n Perez also pointed to what he called Huffines\u2019 history of targeting non-citizens who attend Texas schools. This included filing a failed bill that would have required the state to certify the cost of \u201cproviding educational services to persons who are not lawfully present in the U.S.\u201d when he was a state senator in 2017. Huffines also led a foundation that in 2023 recommended the state \u201crequire proof of citizenship status for students and parents of students\u201d and to \u201ccount and report all noncitizen students and all children of noncitizens,\u201d Perez said.<\/p>\n Under the 1983 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Plyler v. Doe, states cannot deny children access to public education based on immigration status.<\/p>\n Huffines, in a news release related to the investigations,<\/a> said they are meant \u201cto determine whether district spending complies with state law and reaches students, classrooms, and teachers \u2014 rather than contributing to administrative growth or non-instructional bureaucracy.<\/p>\n The Comptroller\u2019s Office visited EPISD this week without notifying lawmakers of their plan. They arrived Monday and left by noon Thursday.<\/p>\n Desiree Serna of Texas LULAC noted that neither Perez nor the organizations want to \u201cobstruct legitimate financial oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are here to demand that it be conducted lawfully, transparently, and without compromising the rights of children and families,\u201d Serna said.<\/p>\n Perez\u2019s request comes after he sent a letter to Huffines on Oct. 12, with a 14-day deadline, rebutting claims of financial mismanagement at EPISD and asking questions about why the district was selected for the review over those with higher administrative spending. Perez said he has not received a response from Huffines.<\/p>\n Perez is on the House Committee on Ways and Means, which is in charge of oversight of the Comptroller of Public Accounts. He is also seeking reelection to Texas House District 77 in the Nov. 3 general election.<\/p>\n This article<\/a> first appeared on El Paso Matters<\/a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.\u00a0 Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The El Paso Independent School District has provided the Texas Comptroller\u2019s Office with records breaking down the number…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[66187,138,140,139,288,392,1724,11538,2794,293,11362],"class_list":["post-482391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-don-huffines","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-elections","tag-greg-abbott","tag-immigration","tag-state-agencies","tag-texas-comptroller-of-public-accounts","tag-texas-legislature","tag-texas-public-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482391","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=482391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/cropped-epmatters-favicon2.png\")
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