Keep on litigating, the reasons to do so aren’t going to run short anytime soon.
Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee is suing the Trump administration after it froze a more-than-$10 million grant for the county’s Refugee Health Services Program.
Menefee announced the move during a Wednesday news conference alongside Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones. The grant, which allocated $10.5 million to Harris County Public Health’s Refugee Health Services Program, was awarded in October under the Biden administration and frozen by the Trump administration in February.
“We are a country that honors the rule of law and honors its commitments,” Briones said. “These individuals are legally in our country seeking protection … They’ve been approved by Congress, and they are waiting health screenings, immunizations, and now this federal funding is frozen. That is not right, that is not just, that is not legal, and that is un-American.”
Briones, who referred to Gulfton as the “modern-day Ellis Island,” said the county’s refugee health program is the largest in the state.
The program operates out of Precinct 4, served 17,000 patients and administered 36,000 vaccines in 2024, according to a news release sent ahead of the announcement. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in January halting the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, but around 3,000 refugees are still awaiting care through Harris County Public Health, Menefee said.
The Refugee Health Services Program has 30 employees who provide “trauma-informed” care for refugees who fled war-torn countries or persecution, including people from Ukraine, Cuba, Afghanistan and Venezuela, Menefee said. Despite the freeze, Menefee said the county has continued providing services, including vaccinations and preventive care, and has incurred $1.25 million in expenses that have not been reimbursed.
“If this funding stays frozen, these people will be out of work and two of our clinics may have to be shut down,” Menefee said. “I want to be clear, this is not some new or radical program that the Trump administration has responded to, this has been a part of U.S. policy since World War II.”
No reason not to fight them on all of these things. May not win, especially if it makes it to SCOTUS, but it’s still worth the effort and it’s the right thing to do.