Criminal justice, immigration are focus of TSU/UH “Texas Trends” survey

By: Texas Southern University

A survey released by TSU and the University of Houston found areas of agreement within two of the hottest political topics in the state — criminal justice and immigration. Though, wide separations were revealed, too, in the latest Texas Trends report by TSU’s Barbara Jordan–Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs and the UH Hobby School of Public Affairs. Those differences were especially sharp when comparing responses by ideology, race and generation.

“When asked if they trust their community law enforcement, almost half of the survey’s Black survey respondents said ‘no.’ To the same question, more than two-thirds of white respondents said ‘yes.’ When we examined by ideology, the highest levels of trust in local law enforcement came from the survey’s conservatives,” said Michael O. Adams, founding director of the Executive Master of Public Administration Program and professor of political science and public administration at TSU.

Considering immigration, a majority supported adding more immigration judges and courts to ease backlogs of immigration cases (65.9% agreed) and expediting court hearings for asylum seekers to reduce wait times (64.3% supported).

Differences were sparked along ideology on whether asylum status in the U.S. should be tougher to obtain. More than half of survey participants who described themselves as conservative (59.5%) or very conservative (69.8%) said it should. Those who describe themselves as liberal (22.5%) or very liberal (20.2%) reflected the opposite view.

For the full report, click here.