Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s man-made murder traps on the Rio Grande have taken border enforcement to a new level of barbarity.

Since border militarization began in the 1990s, anti-immigrant hardliners have been able to shift the blame for hundreds of annual deaths at the US-Mexico border, pointing to natural hazards in the deserts and rivers. With bodies being discovered around saw-equipped shackles and barbed wire waterfalls from Operation Lone Star, the illusion of innocence has been blown away.

Could Abbott face a backlash among Latino voters in Texas, if Republican Governor Pete Wilson faced California Latinos three decades ago for his vicious attacks on immigrants? Some Abbott supporters are annoyed by his recent enforcement actions. An Abbott supporter with property on the Rio Grande, Magali Urbina, told the Texas Tribune this month she was deeply disturbed when she saw a pregnant woman pushed into the water through concertina wire, her arms slashed and bloodied.

Representative Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), speaking to Urbina and other residents about their concerns, told me that many Texans who want strong border security are angry about the brutality. There is a difference between immigration enforcement and treating people like animals, he said.

Last month, Abbott’s flesh-piercing floating barriers led to a lawsuit from the Justice Department. State authorities have claimed that a body caught in shackles drowned and floated upstream. Earlier this month, a 3-year-old girl died on a Texas-backed bus ride to Chicago, raising more questions.

Despite the outcry, it’s not clear Abbott will lose significant ground among Latino voters. the

Hispanic Latino

population in Texas is more conservative than California. Lone Star State Latinos are more likely to own homes and less likely to have been born abroad than Golden State Latinos. With regional roots dating back to the 1500s, Texans of Latino descent will often identify primarily as Tejano. They are less likely to see themselves in immigrants.

While a majority of Texas Latinos reject Abbott, the consistent two-fifths backing him has helped him win three gubernatorial elections, including in recent years when he was already an agent of mayhem on the border.

And while Texas border security spending skyrocketed under Abbott, a June 2023 poll by the University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Politics Project found that 36% of Latino respondents believe the state is underspending on border security. The share of Latino respondents who said border security is the top issue facing Texas (13%) was greater than those who listed inflation (11%), the economy (6%), or abortion (5%) as the top issue . The only issue that received more votes was gun control and gun violence (15%).

Half of the Latinos surveyed supported the deployment of additional state police and military assets at the border. Meanwhile, 90% of Republican Texans supported the same thing. This is a big deal for Republicans because it unites Republicans and to some extent divides Democrats, James Henson, the project director, told me. The governor is also aware that Latinos are divided in ways similar to the ways Democrats are divided.

Latinos in Texas are also divided on legal immigration: 47% of Latinos surveyed said there was too much of it, compared to 54% of whites surveyed who said the same. I don’t think Latino public opinion dictates policy for Abbott, but they don’t assume Latino opposition, Henson said.

The border occupies outsized space in the psyches of all Texans, including Tejanos, because of its sheer length at the southern edge of the state: 1,254 miles, more than half the total miles of the US-Mexico border. Spreading fear about immigration on Fox News and other right-wing media outlets is likely to create more fear among people in a state where they are so much physically exposed to it, regardless of whether they have first-hand experience of the issues.

As a result, Tejanos are not overwhelmingly against Abbott’s crackdown. His Latino following is strongest among men, a trend across the country. His macho attitude at the border works. There’s a strong law-and-order atmosphere that Latinos in the area are drawn to, Roberto F. Carlos, an assistant professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, told me.

In South Texas, where the GOP has gained little traction in recent years, Latinos are more likely to live in rural areas and embrace conservative values ​​related to religion and family. Many have struggled to accept the idea of ​​systemic racism. People in the [Rio Grande] Valley look around and ask: who is in power here? Alvaro Corral, assistant professor of political science at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, told me. Lots of Latinos. Who are the members of Congress? Who are our mayors? Who is on the city council? All Latinos.

Along the southern border, Latinos are often employed by Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies. Even those who identify as Democratic are a far cry from California liberals. Rep. For example, Henry Cuellar, whose district runs from the Rio Grande to San Antonio, is the most conservative Democrat in Congress.

But ultimately, the audience for Abbott’s frontier violence wasn’t Latinos. While Latinos are now the largest demographic in Texas, they are underrepresented in the electorate

because of because of

Gerrymandering and other impediments to voting, such as discriminatory voter ID laws, as well as skewing the group of young people.

His cruelty isn’t even about Texas. Abbott uses the border as a stage to get the attention of all Americans. He cultivates a national brand and persona that gives you all the cops

i

it to immigration that Donald Trump would give you, but with the lack of baggage, Corral said.

Unlike the governor of Florida. Ron DeSantis, Abbott is not facing a term limit. He can wait for his moment to become president. In the meantime, he continues to chase celebrity and power on the backs and bodies of immigrants.

@jeanguerre