(The Center Square) – Of the many bills being filed in the Texas legislature to address border-related issues, one would ban taxpayer money from being used to fund legal services for illegal foreign nationals, including to fight deportation efforts.
Ahead of the legislative session beginning next week, state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, filed House Bill 1554 to ban state and local entities from using taxpayer money to fund legal services for foreign nationals illegally living in Texas.
The bill would ban boards, commissions, councils, departments, state agencies and institutions of higher education and political subdivisions from providing public money, including grants, “to any person for the provision of legal services in a removal or other immigration-related civil proceeding regarding an individual who is unlawfully present in the United States according to the terms of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act.”
It also would prohibit the state from reimbursing political subdivisions for providing legal services to illegal foreign nationals. The law doesn’t apply to indigent defendants entitled to representation under the Code of Criminal Procedure, according to the bill language.
The bill was filed ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s massive deportation effort, which some so-called sanctuary cities have said they oppose. Legal defense funds are also expanding, which were first created in 2017 after Trump’s first deportation effort began.
One is the Vera Institute of Justice’s Safety and Fairness for Everyone (SAFE) Network launched in 2017, which receives funds from billionaire George Soros’ Open Society Foundation and the Biden administration’s Department of Justice.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has called on Congress to investigate and eliminate federal grants awarded to the Vera Institute, “a radically progressive organization dedicated to undermining criminal prosecution in the United States” by allegedly training district attorneys and prosecutors to implement “soft on crime” policies. The institute “receives tens of millions of dollars in federal funds annually” and “is funded by George Soros that trains local prosecutors to dismantle the criminal justice system,” he argues.
The Vera Institute is working on nearly 60 projects in 40 states, including in Texas, it says, where its actively opposing Texas border security efforts. SAFE is currently partnering with local governments and organizations in Austin, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and with the county governments of Bexar and Harris.
The SAFE Network involves “a diverse group of localities dedicated to providing publicly-funded representation for people facing deportation,” it says. Its goal is to “build a critical mass of publicly funded programs at the local and state level” to provide legal representation for illegal foreign nationals facing detention and deportation.
According to its SAFE Network data, more than 205,100 non-citizens are living in Austin, nearly 864,000 are living in Dallas and more than 163,400 are living in San Antonio who are potentially at risk of deportation.
Millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent to support legal defense for those facing detention and deportation.
In Texas’ largest city of Houston, the Harris County Commissioner’s Court for the past two years has approved a Memorandum of Understanding with the Vera Institute to provide legal assistance through the county’s Immigrant Legal Services Fund (ILSF). The county created ILSF in 2020 with an initial $500,000 allocation of taxpayer money.
It next allocated $2 million of taxpayer money to provide legal services to illegal foreign nationals from Nov. 9, 2022, through Nov. 8, 2023, for ILSF/Vera Institute, which was “fully expended and separate” from last year’s agreement. Last year, the county allocated an additional $2 million for the program for the 2024 calendar year.
Bexar County’s Immigrant Legal Defense Fund allocated $1 million in 2022 to fund nonprofit American Gateways and RAICES to provide legal services for illegal border crossers living in the county facing deportation. It’s also advertising free legal services at taxpayer expense for illegal foreign nationals placed in removal proceedings.
The city of Austin also entered into an agreement with American Gateways “to stabilize the immigration status of detained and non-detained immigrants residing in Austin/Travis County,” of more than $2 million for the fiscal 2023-2024 year. This is after it approved more than $1.8 million of taxpayer money for the program in fiscal 2021-2022 and $975,000 in 2019.
The city of San Antonio also entered into an agreement with American Gateways and Catholic Charities to provide free legal representation for illegal border crossers at risk of deportation. In September 2021, the city council approved $1.5 million of taxpayer money to fund services for illegal foreign nationals provided through the nonprofits Catholic Charities of San Antonio, American Gateways, Lutheran Immigration Services, and American Organization for Immigrants.
Capriglione’s bill would prohibit these localities from using taxpayer money to fund these legal defense programs.
This article was originally published at www.thecentersquare.com
