Ken Paxton drops lawsuit seeking to shut down Houston immigrant rights group FIEL

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton dropped the FIEL Houston lawsuit on Monday, filing a two-page notice in a Harris County state court that withdrew the state’s claims with prejudice and ended the effort to dissolve the Houston immigrant rights group’s charter.

The notice, filed November 9, gave no reason for the withdrawal. Because the claims were withdrawn with prejudice, the state cannot bring the same lawsuit against the group again. The attorney general’s office has not publicly explained why it dropped the case.

FIEL, whose full name is Familias Inmigrantes y Estudiantes en la Lucha, which translates to Immigrant Families and Students in the Fight, is a Houston immigrant rights organization run by immigrants. The group offers education, social and legal services to immigrant families in the Houston area. Its executive director is Cesar Espinosa.

“This lawsuit has been very burdensome for us as an institution,” Espinosa said. “Now that this is over, we can return to committing 100% of our time and energy to protecting, educating, and empowering our community.”

Paxton’s office sued FIEL in July 2024, saying the group had violated the rules for tax-exempt charities by engaging in political activity. The state pointed to social media posts in which the group encouraged people to vote against President Donald Trump’s immigration proposals. The state also cited the group’s criticism of Trump, Gov. Greg Abbott and Senate Bill 4, the 2023 Texas law that would let state police arrest people suspected of entering the country illegally. The attorney general’s office asked the court to halt FIEL’s operations and dissolve the organization.

Federal tax law bars organizations with 501(c)(3) status from campaigning for or against candidates, and the Internal Revenue Service enforces that rule. Texas law separately allows the state to ask a court to dissolve a nonprofit’s charter when the group violates state or federal requirements. That charter provision was the tool Paxton’s office used against FIEL.

The case reached a Harris County courtroom within weeks of the filing. On August 23, 2024, Harris County District Judge Ravi K. Sandill rejected the attorney general’s request for a temporary injunction and stopped the case from proceeding. FIEL’s lawyer at the time, Fátima Menéndez of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said after the ruling, “We hope this is permanently the end of this case.”

The state appealed, and the case swung back in its favor more than a year later. On October 15, 2025, the Fifteenth Court of Appeals reversed the trial court’s order and granted the state’s motion for leave to initiate quo warranto proceedings against FIEL to forfeit its charter. Quo warranto is the legal proceeding Texas uses to challenge a corporation’s right to exist. The appeals court decision meant the case could move forward again in the Harris County district court.

The FIEL dismissal was the second such retreat by Paxton’s office on the same day. On Monday, the attorney general’s office also dropped its nearly three-year lawsuit against Annunciation House, an El Paso network of migrant shelters that has worked with Border Patrol to house immigrants who have been processed and released. Ruben Garcia, the founder and executive director of Annunciation House, said, “It’s very gratifying that this has now ended. It’s over.” The two cases were built differently. The state accused Annunciation House of harboring immigrants, while the FIEL case turned on the group’s political speech. Paxton’s office has not publicly explained either dismissal.

Both dismissals came six days after the November 3 election, in which Paxton lost the race for the United States Senate to James Talarico. Paxton leaves the attorney general’s office in January. Attorney General-elect Nathan Johnson, a Democrat, has said he intends to review cases Paxton brought.

The dismissal comes as Houston tests the limits of state immigration policy in its own way. Mayor John Whitmire signed an executive order directing the Houston Police Department to narrow its contact with federal immigration agents, and three Houston City Council members have proposed an ordinance that would make those limits permanent.

The dismissal ends this lawsuit. It does not erase the appeals court ruling that allowed the case to move forward, so the legal theory the state used remains available. No court will now decide whether criticizing a candidate’s immigration agenda is grounds to dissolve a charity in Texas.