American voters do not trust border patrol agents, poll shows
DALLAS - A new national poll says there is some distrust of the nation’s largest law enforcement agency: Customs and Border Protection.
It seems there is a disconnect between what politicians are seeing and saying and people identified as voters when it comes to the southern border. But all voices blame the president for not doing enough.
Voters in a poll taken this month find fault with the president's leadership in addressing issues at the Texas-Mexico border.
But of the 1,038 online respondents, only 21% are extremely concerned about the southern border.
In recent months, the number of illegal border crossings has increased to more than 200,000.
Tom Wong is the founding director of the U.S. Immigration Policy Center and associate political science professor at University California at San Diego.
"Even if we put extremely concerned and very concerned together, we still get less than a majority of voters who are extremely concerned or very concerned about the southern border," he said.
Migrants are apprehended by US Border Patrol and National Guard troops in Eagle Pass, Texas, on May 22, 2022. - A Louisiana federal judge blocked the Biden administration on Friday from ending Title 42, a pandemic-related border restriction that allo
It’s a different story when you look only at Texas.
A recent University of Houston poll found border security is extremely or very important to 71% of registered voters.
The national poll also finds voters do not trust Customs and Border Patrol agents.
"This is something thar we didn’t expect," Wong said. "We expected this to fall mostly along partisan lines, but this trust deficit goes across partisan lines."
Andrea Guerrero is with the Southern Border Communities Coalition.
"Public safety depends on public trust, and there can be no trust if there is not accountability," she said.
Three-fourths who answered the poll don’t believe border patrol respects constitutional rights of everyone, including migrants, and agree there should be greater accountability for the CPB.
"Take into account the lack of trust in CBP when making decisions about policies that would increase accountability and provide pathways to citizenship," Guerrero said.
"Take away the political rhetoric and say if there's asylum seekers who are requesting asylum at the southern border should they have an opportunity to have their applications reviewed by a judge and nearly three in four agree or strongly agree that that should be happening at our southern border," Wong said.