Lucio Vasquez/Houston Public Media

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit on Monday against Harris County after its commissioners recently drew backlash for renewing funding for a 5-year-old immigration legal defense program.

Last month, Harris County commissioners approved allocating more than $1 million for legal defense services as part of the county’s Immigrant Legal Services Fund — a years-long program that aims to improve due process in the federal immigration system.

The attorney general’s lawsuit names as defendants county officials, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and each of the four elected commissioners — including Tom Ramsey, the lone Republican and a dissenting vote on the legal defense funding.

The 17-page lawsuit claims that Harris County’s allocation of

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