Texans want to see more police, razor wire at US-Mexico border, new UT poll shows

A majority of Texans want to see more enforcement at the state's southern border with Mexico to deter migrants from crossing into the U.S. illegally and support Gov. Greg Abbott's border security initiatives, such as building border barriers and installing razor wire along the Rio Grande, a new polling says.

Just under two-thirds of those surveyed said they strongly support or somewhat support the allocation of additional state police and military resources to secure the border. It nearly mirrored the 57% of respondents who said they strongly support or somewhat support the installation of buoys and barbed wire along the Texas banks of the Rio Grande, an area where unauthorized crossings have surged in recent years.

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The poll was conducted by the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas from Feb. 2 to Feb. 12. It asked 1,200 self-declared registered voters about their opinions on a variety of topics, including gun rights, immigration, abortion and their choice candidate for the 2024 presidential election. The poll's margin of error was plus or minus 2.83 percentage points.

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Unsurprisingly, plans to further militarize the U.S.-Mexico border were popular among Republican and independent respondents, with 75% and 45%, respectively, strongly supporting the idea. Only 15% of Democrats surveyed showed strong support for border militarization; however, 44% of Democratic respondents showed at least some support for an increased military presence at the border, according to the poll.

The governor announced Friday that Texas will build a permanent military installation along its border with Mexico, signaling that the Texas National Guard deployment there, which is part of Abbott's $11 billion Operation Lone Star, is not likely to end any time soon. The facility will be able to handle up to 1,800 Guard troops with the capacity to expand to accommodate 2,300 troops, Abbott said.

"This will increase the ability for a larger number of Texas military department personnel in Eagle Pass to operate more effectively and more efficiently," Abbott said.

Though an overwhelming majority of respondents signaled support for measures to curb unauthorized border crossings, just under half (48%) of the poll's respondents went so far as to call it a crisis. Nearly 1 in 4 respondents said they would opt to call illegal border crossings "a very serious problem" instead.

Additionally, 49% of respondents argued there is too much legal immigration in the U.S.

'They're going to find a way': Migrants navigate buoys, razor wire to enter Texas

Abbott's push for a greater police presence at the border, paired with the installation of buoys in the Rio Grande and razor wire along its shores in Texas, has for months sparked intense public discourse and litigation between the federal and state governments.

The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling last month sided with the Biden administration, allowing federal agents to cut through state-installed razor wire so that Border Patrol agents can patrol the border, deploy surveillance equipment and reach officers or migrants in distress.

In Eagle Pass in July, USA TODAY reported that several migrants, including children, required hospital treatment for deep cuts and lacerations from the razor wire. The report also cited an internal email from a state trooper obtained by the newspaper stating that the state's efforts had become "inhumane."

Abbott in December also signed a controversial law that allows state law enforcement officers to arrest, detain, and deport individuals suspected of illegally crossing the Texas-Mexico border.

Senate Bill 4, which is set to go into effect in March, allows local and state law enforcement to arrest anyone suspected of crossing the border unlawfully and charge them with a crime ranging from a class A misdemeanor to a second-degree felony. Those found to have violated the law can be jailed or ordered by a magistrate to be returned to Mexico.

Opponents of the law say Texas has no standing to regulate immigration, which is a federal power, and the bill could result in racial profiling of residents by law enforcement. Sixty percent of respondents to the recent Texas Politics Project survey, however, support making it state crime for most undocumented immigrants to be in Texas, with only 33% opposed.

Statesman staff writer John Moritz contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texans signal support of U.S. border militarization in new UT poll