Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking a court to shut down Bexar County’s taxpayer-funded deportation-defense program for illegal aliens, arguing it violates state law and the Texas Constitution.
The Bexar County Commissioners Court voted on December 16, 2025, to allocate $566,181 in county funds to provide legal services to individuals unlawfully present in the United States through the county’s Immigration Legal Services fund.
Paxton’s office noted that, with additional commitments, total spending on the program could ultimately exceed $1 million.
The money is earmarked to pay lawyers to represent illegal aliens in federal deportation proceedings—a role typically handled either by private counsel or nonprofit organizations, not county governments. Paxton’s lawsuit names Bexar County, the Commissioners Court, and multiple county officials as defendants.
Paxton’s petition argues that subsidizing deportation-defense work for people in the country unlawfully “confers no public benefit,” serves “predominantly private radical interests,” and falls outside any lawful power granted to counties under Texas law.
He framed the program as an attempt by local officials to interfere with federal immigration enforcement while using statewide taxpayers as the funding source.
“Leftists in Bexar County have no authority to use taxpayer dollars to fund their radical, criminal-loving agenda,” Paxton said in a statement, adding that “state funds cannot underwrite deportation-defense services for individuals unlawfully present in the country.”
He called the expenditure “a flagrant violation of state law and the Texas Constitution.”
The lawsuit asks the court for a temporary restraining order and injunctive relief to immediately stop Bexar County from spending any more public money on the immigration legal services effort.
Paxton is also seeking a declaratory judgment that the program is illegal and an order blocking the county from entering into or renewing any contracts that fund deportation defense or other immigration-related legal services that violate state law.
If Paxton prevails, Bexar County would be barred from using local or pass-through state funds to pay attorneys to help illegal aliens fight removal in federal immigration courts, and the county’s Immigration Legal Services initiative would effectively be shut down.
Bexar County declined to comment on pending litigation.
