Texas AG Ken Paxton sues county over program that helps migrants get hold of legal professionals

Texas GOP Lawyer Common Ken Paxton is suing Harris County — house to Houston — for utilizing county funds for packages that assist migrants dealing with deportation get hold of entry to authorized assist.

Harris County established the Immigrant Authorized Providers Fund program in 2020, sending cash to 5 organizations that assist migrants dealing with deportation get hold of legal professionals.

Final month, the county appropriated an further $1.3 million to assist this system.

Paxton stated in an announcement that this system is “evil and depraved,” in addition to unconstitutional.

TEXAS AG KEN PAXTON SUES LATINO VOTER GROUP JOLT FOR ALLEGEDLY REGISTERING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

“We should cease the left-wing radicals who’re robbing Texans to forestall illegals from being deported by the Trump Administration,” Paxton stated. “Past simply being blatantly unconstitutional, that is evil and depraved. Thousands and thousands upon thousands and thousands of illegals invaded America over the last administration, they usually have to be despatched again to the place they got here from.”

That is considered one of a number of current lawsuits filed by Paxton concentrating on organizations that assist migrants.

Harris County Lawyer Christian Menefee, a Democrat, rebuked Paxton’s newest lawsuit, affirming that this system is “completely authorized” and that his workplace would battle again in opposition to the lawsuit in court docket.

“This lawsuit is an affordable political stunt,” he stated in an announcement. “At a time when the president has unleashed ICE brokers to terrorize immigrant neighborhoods, deport U.S. residents, and trample the regulation, it’s shameful that Republican state officers are becoming a member of in as an alternative of standing up for Texans.”

The Harris County Jail leads the nation in ICE detainers. (Getty Photographs)

The Harris County Jail leads the nation in ICE detainers, in accordance with The Texas Tribune, as federal and state officers search to proceed to hold out President Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda.

Earlier than the county began the Immigrant Authorized Providers Fund in 2020, it was the biggest county within the nation with out a program to assist migrants get entry to authorized counsel, The Texas Tribune famous. The county handed this system on a party-line vote.

“When you may have a household at a deportation listening to they usually don’t have an lawyer, they’re deported at a a lot increased charge, like 90% of the time, in comparison with like 5% of the time after they do have an lawyer,” county Choose Lina Hidalgo, who proposed this system, stated on the time, in accordance with the Houston Chronicle.

FIRST ON FOX: TEXAS’ KEN PAXTON ENDORSES CANDIDATE TO SUCCEED HIM AS ATTORNEY GENERAL

Harris County Lawyer Christian Menefee referred to as the lawsuit a “low-cost political stunt.” (Getty Photographs)

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Within the lawsuit, Paxton claims that the packages “serve no public function and as an alternative represent unconstitutional grants of public funds to non-public entities to subsidize particular person deportation defenses.” He requested the court docket to dam the county from distributing funds to those organizations and prohibit it from sending the cash to the teams sooner or later.

Final month, after the vote to allocate funding for this system, Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis stated the funding was wanted due to the uptick in raids concentrating on migrants, in accordance with the Houston Chronicle.

“Gaining access to authorized illustration not solely improves case outcomes however helps hold households collectively,” he stated in an announcement. “In a county as numerous as ours, native authorities should step as much as safeguard security, justice, and the folks we serve.”