Americans are very worried about human trafficking when it comes to the U.S.-Mexico border, a new poll shows ahead of a planned rally in Texas.
The Trafalgar Group‘s survey, released as officials brace for a migrant surge should the Trump-era Title 42 policy credited with blocking millions of crossings expire next month, asked likely general election voters to pick from a handful of issues stemming from the “southern border crisis” that concern them the most.
Top of the list, with 35.1% of voters, was human trafficking of women and children. In second place were 26.6% of respondents picking illegal border crossers or asylum seekers being released into the U.S. before their cases are reviewed.
After that, 14.8% said illegal border crossers with ties to international terrorist organizations, followed by 14.1% saying they are most concerned about the flow of fentanyl and other dangerous drugs. The remaining 9.4% said none of the above.
Conducted in partnership with the Convention of States Action, a conservative group, the nationwide poll surveyed 1,096 likely general election voters from April 11 through April 14. The Trafalgar Group says the poll has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
The survey’s results were released ahead of a “HOW MANY MORE?” rally planned for outside the Texas state Capitol in Austin on Saturday, April 29, with speakers expected to include Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), musician Ted Nugent, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, Convention of States President Mark Meckler, and “real-life victims of border tragedy,” according to a press release.
The event aims to draw attention to the border situation and muster support for Texas leaders to declare an “invasion” as the southern border and secure the passage of Texas HB 20, which would create a Texas “Border Protection Unit.”
“Texas is going to save the nation,” Meckler told The Daily Wire, predicting that the event will help mount pressure on other border states to take action.
This is all happening while on the federal level, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas refuses to acknowledge that the border is in “crisis” at all and the Biden administration appears set to allow the pandemic-era Title 42, which allows authorities to quickly turn away migrants at the border on public health grounds, to expire on May 11.
“The failure of our current border policies makes every American complicit in the spread of human misery,” the rally’s website says. “We will no longer accept the erosion of America or its values by allowing the humanitarian crisis at our southern border to continue.”