On April 28, 2008, Colorado Congressman Thomas Tancredo attended a Congressional Hearing hosted by the University of Texas Brownsville and Texas Southmost College. Towards the end or the hearings Tancredo pointed out that too many people in this area do not think that borders matter, he criticized the audiences “multiculturalist attitude” and stated in an exasperated matter: “If you do not want a fence between you and Mexico I suggest that you build the fence around the northern part of your city.” It is true that many residents of South Texas are against the border wall. It is wrong however to think that South Texans are against border security, are misguided by “multiculturalism,” and are not proud citizens of the U.S. Our survey of South Texas residents (through random phone interviews, n=153) showed that while there is wide opposition to the border wall there is also strong support of the border patrol. We are in the middle of analyzing the data but thought we should share our initial results. In response to our question, “Are you for or against the construction of the border wall in South Texas?,” an overwhelming majority of respondents, 60%, were against the border wall. Only a minority of respondents, 16%, expressed support for the construction of the border wall while 24% were neither for nor against. Security was also a concern of our respondents.
When asked, “Do you think that the number of Border Patrol agents on the U.S. Mexico border in South Texas should be increased, decreased, remain at current levels?”, over 80% responded that the number of agents should either remain at current levels or increased.
Finally, when asked about virtual fencing respondents were almost evenly divided.
The statistics show that residents of South Texas have complex and strong views on border security that should be taken into account when formulating policy. We are now in the process or further analyzing this data, including conducting follow-up interviews, to provide a broader interpretation of this data. One thing that appears to be true, in contrast to Tancredo’s view, residents of South Texas do care about border policy.
This is a very interesting finding, Miguel, and nobody that I know of has tried to assess these different issues together. Thank you and Margaret for doing this. I hope to be able to cite you two on this study once it’s more complete.
Heya nice entry. Did you record last nights O’Rielly Factor? That’s some great writing material lol. Peace
grEAT article! this blog really captured my interest!