COSA Poll: 51.8% OK With Governors Asking Volunteers to Defend Border

More than half — 52% — of U.S. voters say they would support their state governor asking for citizen volunteers to help defend the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a poll released Wednesday by the Trafalgar Group and Convention of States Action.

The poll found 51.8% said they would support a governor calling for volunteers to help defend the southern border, with 31.9% opposed and 16.3% not sure.

Among Democrat voters, the numbers were 19.6% yes on support, 69.5% no, and 10.9% not sure.

For Republicans, 72.9% were a yes, 8.8% no, and 18.3% not sure.

Unaffiliated voters broke down as 46.9% yes, 36.2% no, and 16.9% not sure.

The poll surveyed 1,079 likely general election voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9%.

Monthly encounters between U.S. Border Patrol agents and migrants attempting to cross into the United States remain at levels not seen in more than two decades, according to the latest available monthly data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, with 206,239 encounters reported in November, 2022, and 301,625 in December.

"Washington, D.C. elites — and their friends in the global business, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley establishment worlds — are completely disconnected from the American people and the reality that goes on around them daily," said Mark Meckler, President of Convention of States.

Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis "sent some illegal aliens up to Martha's Vineyard last year to make exactly that point. The border crisis is real, it's urgent, and it presents a potential danger to every family in this country."

"When Washington, D.C., fails, the states who created Washington, D.C., have a duty to step in. And in the case of the Southern Border, a majority say they are so deeply alarmed by the failure to secure the border, they want their governor to call on average citizens to step in and defend our nation. I cannot underscore how significant this is, our citizens are so desperate, they are ready to step in," he added.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in 2021 deployed the state's National Guard along the U.S.-Mexico border to help troopers make arrests, part of a broader campaign by Abbott to toughen border enforcement.