The Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked the county's multi-million-dollar immigration legal assistance program after finding "serious doubt" about whether the county has the legal authority to operate it.
The program offers free legal services to county residents facing deportation who qualify.
The state supreme court said they have enough legal questions to put a temporary pause on funding.
On Friday, the court temporarily blocked the county from spending money through its Immigrant Legal Services Fund while the case plays out.
In its ruling, the court said there is "serious doubt about the constitutionality of the Harris County program" and that "it is not clear that the County has constitutional or statutory authority to conduct the program."
The program, created in 2020, provides free legal services to eligible Harris County residents facing deportation while in ICE custody.
To qualify, applicants must earn less than 80% of the area's median family income.
Immigration cases are civil, unlike taxpayer-funded public defenders in criminal cases.
When commissioners first debated creating the program, much of the discussion centered on whether the county had the legal authority to do it. Some commissioners said they viewed this as a federal issue and did not support it.
At the time, the county attorney's office said it considered whether this funding would violate any statutes and concluded it did not.
This recent state supreme court decision stems from a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Ken Paxton last November.
It argued that the constitution prohibits government entities from misusing public funds by giving gifts or benefits to individuals and groups that "do not serve a legitimate public end."
"It could be found unconstitutional if you're giving it to a private entity and there's no benefit for the general public," immigration lawyer Raed Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez said the case will likely come down to proving the program serves a public purpose. That argument was made years ago during initial discussions among commissioners' court members on this topic.
"An estimated 412,000 undocumented residents who account for nearly 10% of the county's labor force," Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said. "Harris County benefits from diversity and is home to immigrants representing dozens of different cultures and languages who constitute an inseparable part of our social fabric."