Ken Paxton drops lawsuit seeking to shut down immigration aid group FIEL Houston

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton dropped a lawsuit seeking to shut down FIEL, a Houston immigrant-rights organization the state had accused of violating nonprofit restrictions by criticizing President Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott’s immigration policies.

On Monday, Paxton’s office filed a notice withdrawing the claims “with prejudice,” which means the state can’t bring the same lawsuit against the organization again. The two-page notice, which was filed in a state court in Harris County, didn’t say why Paxton’s office dropped the lawsuit.

“This lawsuit has been very burdensome for us as an institution,” said Cesar Espinosa, executive director of Familias Inmigrantes y Estudiantes en la Lucha. “Now that this is over, we can return to committing 100% of our time and energy to protecting, educating, and empowering our community.”

Paxton had filed the lawsuit against FIEL in July citing social media posts encouraging people to vote against Trump’s immigration proposals. The group opposed a 2023 law, Senate Bill 4, that would let Texas police arrest people suspected of having entered the country illegally.

The decision to drop the lawsuit against FIEL came the same day Paxton’s office dropped similar legal efforts to shut down Annunciation House, an El Paso nonprofit network of migrant shelters that has worked with Border Patrol to house immigrants who have been processed and released.

“It’s very gratifying that this has now ended. It’s over,” Ruben Garcia, founder and executive director of Annunciation House, told El Paso Matters.