A Marist poll released this week found 61 percent of likely Texas voters say immigrants living in the U.S. without legal permission should have a way to stay legally if they meet certain requirements. Thirty-five percent say they should be required to leave. The majority includes 68 percent of independents and about a third of Republicans.
The poll follows more than a year of aggressive immigration enforcement in a state that holds more people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention than any other. It also lands as Democrats are competitive in the races for U.S. Senate and governor, with early voting set to begin Monday.
Matt Angle, a Democratic strategist and director of the Lone Star Project, told Newsweek the crackdown has changed how many Texans see the issue. "I don't think there's any question that it's softened people's attitudes," Angle said. "They really did buy Trump's lie that they would only go after the worst of the worst.
And of course, that's not what happened at all." The polling history is messier. Texans have backed some form of legal status for years, and Republicans still beat Democrats with voters on border security. "Voters' views aren't softening, just shifting," Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, told Newsweek.
"Supporting a secure border does not necessarily mean supporting mass deportations." A ReconMR poll of 617 likely voters, conducted October 5-8, found 56 percent of Texans say the tactics used by ICE have gone too far. Twenty-nine percent say they have been about right, and 11 percent say they have not gone far enough. Fifty-four percent oppose the way ICE agents are working to arrest people.
The agency's favorability rating stands at 43 percent favorable and 53 percent unfavorable, slipping from 45-50 in June. Independents drove the result. Sixty-nine percent of them said ICE had gone too far, against 16 percent of Republicans, most of whom called the tactics about right.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
