By Selina Xia Zamacois<\/p>\n\n\n\n
AUSTIN, TEXAS \u2014 The Supreme Court of Texas has issued an order temporarily halting Harris County from distributing more than $1.3 million in taxpayer funds intended to support legal defense for individuals facing federal deportation proceedings. The decision follows a petition filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who argued that the county\u2019s program unlawfully directs public money toward defending people who lack legal immigration status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The order, issued on June 27, 2026, states that Harris County is \u201cbarred from continuing to disburse funds\u201d connected to the challenged program while the case continues. The court granted temporary relief under Rule 52.10 of the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure, noting that the justices found \u201cserious doubt about the constitutionality\u201d of the county\u2019s actions and uncertainty regarding whether Harris County has statutory authority to operate such a program. The ruling does not decide the case\u2019s final outcome but freezes the program until further review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Attorney General Paxton filed suit against Harris County after the county approved more than $1.3 million in funding for legal\u2011service organizations that represent individuals in federal deportation proceedings. Paxton argued that the county\u2019s actions violated state law and misused taxpayer funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harris County had begun distributing funds before the lawsuit reached the state\u2019s highest court. Paxton\u2019s office sought emergency relief, asking the Supreme Court to stop further disbursement while the case is litigated. The court agreed, issuing a temporary order preventing additional payments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a press release, Attorney General Paxton called the ruling \u201ca major win for protecting taxpayer dollars.\u201d He stated that Texans should not be required to fund legal defense for individuals facing deportation and praised the court for freezing the program during ongoing litigation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Supreme Court\u2019s order is temporary. The underlying legal questions\u2014including whether Harris County\u2019s program is constitutional and whether the county has authority to fund deportation\u2011defense services\u2014will be decided after full briefing and argument.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For now, Harris County must suspend all disbursements related to the program until the court issues further instructions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Selina Xia Zamacois AUSTIN, TEXAS \u2014 The Supreme Court of Texas has issued an order temporarily halting Harris County from distributing more than $1.3 million in taxpayer funds intended to support legal defense for individuals facing federal deportation proceedings. The decision follows a petition filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who argued that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hvhappens.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hvhappens.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hvhappens.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hvhappens.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hvhappens.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hvhappens.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1528,"href":"https:\/\/hvhappens.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1526\/revisions\/1528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hvhappens.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hvhappens.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hvhappens.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hvhappens.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}