Reporting by Robert Moore
Residents of El Paso County and the Rio Grande Valley feel that ICE tactics and increased immigration enforcement are making their life harder without improving their safety, according to polling results released Thursday by the ACLU of Texas.
The results also indicate that residents in Texas’ most populous areas on the U.S.-Mexico border overwhelmingly disapprove of President Donald Trump’s job performance, which could point to a difficult environment for other Republican political candidates in the Nov. 3 election.
“If there is one thing to take away from today and from our report, it is that enforcement has simply gone too far,” Nick Hudson, senior manager of policy and advocacy for ACLU of Texas, said during a news conference.
Sixty-three percent of the more than 1,000 people surveyed felt that tactics used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have gone too far, with 21% believing the tactics have been about right.
Concerns about immigration enforcement are impacting how people go about their day-to-day lives in El Paso and the Rio Grande Valley, the poll found.
“A significant percentage of border residents reported rethinking even traveling to school at 19%, to church and community events at 24%, and even visiting the doctor at 18%,” said Osvaldo Grimaldo, a policy and advocacy strategist for border and immigrants’ rights at ACLU of Texas. “As a result of the massive enforcement efforts along the Texas border, local officials should take steps to allow everyone living in border communities the basic decency of access to medical care and religious community.”
The number of ICE apprehensions have surged the El Paso region in recent months, according to the Deportation Data Project, with more than 1,800 people being taken into custody in El Paso County and adjacent areas in southern New Mexico in June and July alone.
When asked for comment about the poll findings, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said: “Our agents are focused on protecting the American people – not entertaining performative outrage.”
“Since Day One, DHS law enforcement has been delivering on President Trump’s promise to the American people to arrest and deport criminal illegal aliens including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists. We will continue to deliver on the president’s promise to make America safe again,” the spokesperson said.
However, more than 70% of ICE detainees have no criminal conviction, according to the most recent data the government has made available.
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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has directed use of state law enforcement in immigration enforcement, and isn’t backing off that position, said Andrew Mahaleris, the press secretary for his re-election campaign.
“Texas is a law-and-order state, and Texas law enforcement officers will uphold its laws. Governor Abbott will not pull the Department of Public Safety off immigration enforcement, and he will not weaken the laws that keep Texans safe. Texas will continue working closely with the federal government to deter, arrest, detain, and deport illegal immigrants,” Mahaleris said.
The poll was conducted Aug. 25-Sept. 2 by Change Research in El Paso County and four Rio Grande County counties (Cameron, Hidalgo, Starr, and Willacy). The online survey drew 1,031 responses, which researchers weighted by age, gender, race/ethnicity, county, and self-reported 2024 presidential vote to be reflective of actual demographics in those counties The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.
The poll found that 34% of the border residents surveyed approved of President Trump’s performance in office, while 60% disapproved. That is similar to the president’s job approval rating nationally in recent polling. Trump’s disapproval rating in El Paso County is 65%, according to the ACLU of Texas poll.
ICE tactics could be factor in midterm elections nationally
Republicans have expressed concern that widespread disapproval of Trump’s job performance is weighing down their candidates as the Nov. 3 midterm elections approach.
The president’s low approval ratings in the Rio Grande Valley are of particular concern for the GOP. Trump carried all four of the Rio Grande Valley counties in 2024, and Republicans have been counting on continued high levels of support among Hispanics to help them win several contested U.S. House races in South Texas.
Trump lost El Paso County to Democrat Kamala Harris in 2024, but picked up 42% of the vote, up from 32% in 2020 and 26% in 2016.
National Republicans haven’t targeted Democrat Veronica Escobar, who has represented El Paso in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2019. Her Republican opponent, Adam Bauman, is among a handful of major-party House candidates in the country who haven’t reported raising any money for their campaigns as of this summer.
El Paso Republicans, emboldened by Trump’s improvement in 2024, have fielded more candidates for local offices than in the past, including county judge and some state representative seats. The only countywide races Republicans have won in a local election in the past century was a congressional race in 1962 and a district court judgeship in 1984.
This article originally appeared in El Paso Matters.
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