Border residents in Texas and Arizona shared which presidential candidate they think will best secure the southern border in interviews with Fox News Digital.
"Donald Trump, without a doubt, because he did before, he started sending these folks back home," a rancher in Quemado, Texas, said.
Residents who live along the border overwhelmingly expressed support for former President Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris to return to the White House to secure the southern border.
"100% Trump," a Del Rio, Texas gun shop owner said enthusiastically, adding that if Trump is elected, he will reinstate the border policies of his administration, emphasizing it was better under Trump than the Biden-Harris administration that replaced him.
"Trump… he is the one who will stop this," said a Sierra Vista, Arizona resident who believes the former president will best handle the border crisis.
An Arivaca, Arizona, resident said, "Open border policy of the Biden administration affects our local community greatly, and I am definitely against open borders."
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Nearly 9 in 10 voters say the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border is an emergency (44%) or a major problem (43%). That’s an increase since February, when about 8 in 10 felt it was an emergency (41%) or major problem (37%), according to the latest Fox News national survey.
Concern about the border increased most notably among those under age 30 (+20 points), Black voters (+19), Democrats (+14), Hispanic voters (+12), and women (+12).
More blame the Biden administration’s lack of enforcement at the border (71% a great deal or some) than former President Trump and the Senate GOP for failed immigration legislation (57%).
The survey also asks about policy ideas related to immigration and border security and finds 63% favor deporting illegal immigrants back to their home countries. That’s down from 67% in 2023, but nowhere near the 52% low favoring it in 2015, the first time it was asked.
Trump also has a 19-point lead over Harris on who is trusted most to tackle border security.
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Since Fox Digital spoke with residents along the southern border, Harris changed her prior tone on the border wall.
Seemingly recognizing that being too progressive on immigration could be politically harmful, Harris has pledged to spend hundreds of millions on the wall along the southern border, which she has previously spoken out against, if she is elected president, according to Axios.
At the DNC, Harris said she would sign the bipartisan Senate border bill that Trump did not support. The bill would require hundreds of millions of unspent funds to be used on the border wall. However, according to Harris' advisers, the bill does not provide additional funding for the border wall.
Trump and several Republicans slammed the bill for a provision that includes shutting down the border only when 5,000 illegal immigrants a day cross the border, as well as the billions of dollars of spending attached that goes to Ukraine and Israel.
Elizabeth Heckman and Nikolas Lanum reported from Texas, Adam Shaw reported from Arizona. Fox News' Victoria Balara and Andrew Mark Miller also contributed to this report.
