Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday filed a lawsuit against Colony Ridge, a sprawling development that’s become a magnet for illegal immigrants, alleging deceptive trade practices and fraudulent transactions.
The lawsuit comes as Colony Ridge, which allegedly uses marketing and financial strategies to attract illegal immigrants, continues to be buried in legal problems, facing multiple federal investigations and a joint lawsuit from the Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
“Colony Ridge’s business model is predicated on churning land purchasers through a foreclosure mill,” Paxton’s lawsuit states. “Namely, Colony Ridge targets foreign born and Hispanic consumers with limited or no access to credit with promises of cheap, ready to build land and financing without proof of income.”
The development, highlighted in a Daily Wire investigation in September, allegedly uses financial and marketing strategies that attract illegal immigrants, allowing Colony Ridge to surge to as many as 70,000 residents while sprawling across roughly 60 square miles. The development sold plots of land for down payments of $500 with interest rates of about 13%, using a specific financing method that allowed foreign nationals illegally present in the United States to buy land.
“A monthslong investigation by the Office of the Attorney General found that the developer has made numerous false, misleading, and deceptive sales, marketing, and lending practices that enabled their business model,” a press release from Paxton’s office reads.
“Colony Ridge has been flagrantly violating Texas law. The development profited from targeting consumers with fraudulent claims and predatory lending practices” Paxton went on to allege. “Their deceptive practices have created unjust and outsized harms. Nearby communities have borne a tremendous cost for the scheme that made Colony Ridge’s developers a fortune.”
Have you heard about America’s ‘largest illegal immigrant settlement’ that’s said to be a hub of cartel activity?
I visited Colony Ridge for @realDailyWire to learn about a development that’s home to 40k-75k people and is in the midst of a rapid expansion.
Here’s what I found: pic.twitter.com/SqVkWKT7zM
— Spencer Lindquist 🇺🇸 (@SpencerLndqst) September 18, 2023
The development was previously addressed in a letter from Paxton alleging Colony Ridge “appears to be attracting and enabling illegal alien settlement in the state of Texas and distressing neighboring cities and school districts.”
