POLL: 93% Of Texans Want Police To Check Immigration Status During Arrests

Overall, 93 percent of respondents said immigration status should be checked when a person is arrested for a crime, with 99 percent of self-identified Republicans and 88 percent of Democrats expressing support for such a policy.

Immigration checks received much less support in specific situations: during traffic stops, reports of criminal activity, or witness statements. Only 43 percent of all respondents said that police should check immigration status during a routine traffic stop; 40 percent said that it should be checked when a person is reporting a crime; and just 39 percent said that status should be checked when officers suspect that a person is a witness to a crime or could provide a statement.

For the first time in its 11-year history, the Texas Lyceum poll focused specifically on public attitudes about immigration policy, a subject of intense national debate under the Trump administration. The poll found that 27 percent of Texans think immigration or border security is the state’s most pressing problem, ranking the issue ahead of the economy, political corruption and healthcare.

...On the question of whether immigration generally hurts or helps the country, 39 percent of Texas Republicans said it hurts more than it helps, while 79 percent of Democrats felt the opposite. The percentage of Hispanics who said immigration helps increased by 12 points, from 59 percent to 71 percent.

A question about sanctuary cities, where local government officials limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, also yielded a sharp partisan split. Texas Republicans opposed sanctuary policies by a 60-point margin over Democrats — 86 percent to 26 percent.