TEXAS — Twenty percent of Texas Republican voters and 8% of independents said immigration or border security was the state's most important problem in an April 2026 survey by the UT Texas Politics Project, the lowest level recorded by the project in over a decade of statewide surveys. Inflation and the economy collectively were the top issue for Texans in the same survey, eclipsing immigration even among Republican voters.

The figure marked a sharp drop from April 2024, when 68% of Texas Republican voters identified immigration or border security as the state's most important problem. Voter disapproval of President Joe Biden's handling of immigration in Texas exceeded approval by more than 30 percentage points in 2024, and 53% of Texas voters that year said they trusted Donald Trump to do a better job on immigration compared with 36% for Kamala Harris.

In the April 2026 survey, 48% of Texas voters approved of Trump's handling of immigration and 43% disapproved, giving him net positive job approval on the issue. Among Texas independents, 27% approved and 56% disapproved. Trump carried Texas by nearly 14 points in the 2024 presidential election.

Illegal border crossings rose sharply two years ago. Texas Republicans criticized the Biden administration's immigration policies and vowed to seal the U.S.-Mexico border and support Trump's promised mass deportations. The president's immigration crackdown has resulted in the deaths of at least three Americans and the deportations of thousands of people with no criminal record.

Governor Greg Abbott spearheaded the state's multibillion-dollar border crackdown during the Biden administration. Operation Lone Star was an $11 billion mission that sent Department of Public Safety officers and State Guard troops to the border during Biden's presidency. Abbott also ran a digital ad contrasting Operation Lone Star with Democratic presidential candidates' 2019 proposals to provide healthcare coverage to undocumented immigrants.

Abbott also threatened to cut public safety grants for cities whose Democratic leaders sought to set guardrails on police cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opened investigations into whether local city officials had violated state law prohibiting sanctuary cities. The cities reversed course on their proposed guardrails.

Police departments and sheriffs across Texas have signed agreements to work with ICE more than in any other state, according to records from the agency. Texas leads the nation in ICE arrests and in the number of people detained in immigration facilities.

A bipartisan immigration reform bill backed by Representative Monica De La Cruz would create a seven-year pathway to legal status for people who have lived in the country since 2020 and can pass a criminal background check. The bill represents one legislative response to ongoing debate over immigration policy as survey data show the issue has fallen in priority among Texas Republican voters since 2024.