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Sanctuary cities are banned in Texas, but Harris and Bexar counties have still been using taxpayer money to fund legal services for illegal aliens. It's not just counties, though. Both the City of Austin and the City of Dallas have been doing this too.
According to reporter Holly Hansen, this is happening all across the United States. She said, "These entities provide this legal defense as part of something called The SAFE Network. It's a national network of local governments."
According to Hansen, these legal defense funds are available to illegal aliens facing deportation, without regard to their criminal history.
The good news is, the loophole in Texas law that has allowed for this program could soon be closed. Hansen said that, "We have one state lawmaker who wants to ban the practice. He says it's not an appropriate use of our taxpayer dollars."
That lawmaker is Representative Giovanni Capriglione. The Republican from Southlake filed HB1554 last month, which would ban any state or local entity from using taxpayer money to fund legal defense for illegal aliens. His bill would even prevent state-funded colleges from doing this.
If something isn't done about this, it might not stop at just legal services. Hansen pointed out that early last year, Harris County Democrats had tried to include illegal aliens in their guaranteed basic income program called Uplift Harris. That program was never able to take effect thanks to efforts by Attorney General Ken Paxton.