A majority of voters in a new poll said they would support Texas in creating its own border protection agency to deal with the immigrant crisis.
The poll, conducted by The Trafalgar Group for the group Convention of States Action, showed that 62% of voters support legislation to "specifically deal with the southern border failures that have created a humanitarian crisis," while 25% of the voters opposed the proposal and 13.1% said they are not sure.
Republicans and independents were more likely to say they were likely to support the legislation, while Democrats were not:
- 52.2% of independents support the plan, 31.1% oppose it, and 9.7% said they are not sure.
- 89.7% of Republicans said they support the proposal, 3.2% oppose it, and 7.1.% said they aren't sure.
- 30.1% of Democrat voters support the measure, 45.3% oppose it, and 24.7% said they are not sure.
The poll was conducted March 20-22 of more than 1,000 likely general election voters and comes out before Saturday's "How Many More?" rally being held in Austin, Texas, and sponsored by Convention of States Action.
"All of our polling on the southern border crisis has shown that Americans are fully aware that the federal government has failed, and will continue to fail, at protecting Americans, securing our southern border, and ending the humanitarian crisis they've created," said Mark Meckler, president of the Convention of States and the rally organizer.
"Voters are desperate for a solution, and now states like Texas are stepping forward to solve the crisis that Washington D.C., has failed to fix — or even acknowledge exists."
Meckler added that voters in other states want similar laws, as "people don't care where the solution comes from, they just want to see the problem solved. It's time for the states, starting with Texas, to step up."
Rally organizers said the event will be a call for action for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other leaders to take action, including declaring an "invasion" at the border, passing Texas HB 20 to create the state border protection unit, and declaring Mexico's cartels as terror organizations.