Press Conference Tuesday: Border Security Poll
RELEASE OF BORDER SECURITY POLL
When: 10 a.m. Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Where: Sky Lounge, 17th Floor, Double Tree Hotel,
600 N. El Paso Street, Downtown El Paso
On hand: Sheriff Wiles, Former County Attorney Jose Rodriguez, and other notable El Pasoans
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POLL: BORDER RESIDENTS FEEL SAFE
El Paso group orders first independent poll of border residents on safety
El Paso, TX – If you were to believe the political rhetoric about the security situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, you’d probably never want to live there. It’s regularly described as a lawless war zone, not a place where regular people go to work and raise families. Recently, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer spoke of “murder, terror and mayhem†on the border and U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., wanted to send more National Guardsmen to “secure our border and allow (our citizens) to lead lives where they not live in fear. ”
This negative and fearful vision of the border has led to punitive policies of strict enforcement and militarization that don’t reflect the reality of border life and the needs of its inhabitants. Statistics clearly show the border to be one of the safest areas in the nation, one without an increase in crime for several years.
But what do people who live there think? The Border Network for Human Rights decided to find out by commissioning the first opinion poll of border residents from San Diego to Brownsville, asking them: Do you feel safe living on the border?
The poll was conducted by the reputed El Paso polling firm Reuel Group, which conducts public opinion polls for political races and news outlets. Pollsters used standard statistical methods to select a sample of 1,222 border residents in three Arizona border cities (Douglas, Nogales and Yuma), two California border cities (El Centro and San Diego), Las Cruces, New Mexico, and four Texas border cities (Brownsville, El Paso, Laredo and McAllen). The margin of error was plus or minus 2.9 percent.
The Border Network for Human Rights will release the poll’s results Tuesday (See details of press conference above).
Contact: Louie Gilot, Policy Director, Border Network for Human Rights, (915) 274-0541, lgilot@bnhr.org
More information on the Border Network for Human Rights: This organization, founded in 1998, is one of the leading immigration reform and human rights advocacy organization in the United States. Based in El Paso, the BNHR counts about 4,000 members in El Paso and Southern New Mexico. More information at www.bnhr.org.
