EL PASO, Texas – Inflation and border security are front and center for many voters Fox News spoke with in El Paso ahead of November’s midterm elections.
“Inflation, economics,” Jason said. “I want to make sure that I can afford to live.”
Tony said he was paying less than $2 per gallon for fuel during the Trump administration, and now he’s paying upwards of $4 per gallon.
“With Trump in the White House, we never had these issues,” Chrystal said of inflation and border security, her two biggest priorities.
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Aaron says the economy and inflation are his top priorities this election cycle. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News)
Aaron wants to see business-minded candidates who can help the economy and possibly encourage the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.
“I know right now everything is really volatile and inflation is really high and we don’t know when it’s going to go down,” he said. “So I would just want to make sure they have a good plan of lowering making it a lot easier to live in America.”
Misty, who was visiting El Paso from New Mexico, said women’s rights were her top voting priority.
“I’m a mother and I have daughters, and with that, Roe v. Wade being overturned, I worry about what the future looks like for them,” she said.
Ame Matoi wants to vote for a candidate who “really taxes the rich, but in the same way still cares about the people.”
Matoi also values the Second Amendment, but would like to see some reforms.
“I would like to vote for a Democrat to fix the gun issue, but I don’t want the guns taken away,” Matoi said. “I would like to see that the assault rifle age … would be 21.”
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Border security and immigration also ranked high for several voters Fox News spoke with.
Chrystal says inflation and border security are her two biggest voting priorities this year. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News)
“Our border is not secure,” Chrystal said. “I am a Latina and I believe that people should come here with their papers. But what we have going on is absolutely not okay.”
Chrystal characterized the Biden administration’s current policy as “an open invitation” to people around the world.
“So why wouldn’t they come?” she said. “But the problem is, we don’t know who’s coming through. All the fentanyl that’s hitting the United States is killing everybody.”
Tony said the government needs to know who it lets “into its house.”
“Just like you wouldn’t let anyone just walk into your house without you asking who they are, where they come from, what their intentions are, it’s the same concept,” he said. “I feel bad for those immigrants because it’s like they’re using them to try to press a political agenda.”
A Customs and Border Protection bus drops off dozens of migrants, mostly from Venezuela, at the city of El Paso’s migrant welcome center Sept. 22, 2022. (Hannah Ray Lambert/Fox News)
But Arturo, who works in downtown El Paso and has seen the effects of the city’s migrant crisis firsthand, said he thinks open borders are “not really a threat.”
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“People should feel the right to come here and to feel safe, to be able to progress their life and escape whatever they’re trying to escape,” Arturo said. “I want to see some more support for that, like for them, instead of just jam-packing them into some kind of facility or something.”
Jason said he’s worried about strains on social services as a result of the surge in illegal immigration.
“I would prefer that people come over legally,” he said. “I have lots of neighbors in the El Paso area that came over legally, and they’re not big fans of illegal immigration.”
Michel, visiting from Ohio, said border security doesn’t affect him directly, but he doesn’t like seeing “the drugs, the trafficking and the people that are dying” crossing the border.
“When Trump was in office, every time there was an incident in a river or somebody died, it made it front page news,” he said. “Now it’s happening, people are dying by the scores, they don’t seem to care.”
Migrants cross the border into El Paso March 17, 2021, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. El Paso has seen a surge of migrants in September 2022, putting a strain on city resources and local nonprofits. (Paul Ratje/REUTERS)
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He said the administration should “put a wall up [and] keep it up.”
As the midterms approach, Tony said he’s disturbed by how polarized the country has become and hopes people will treat each other with compassion.
“I hate this culture of the division that the media just keeps like hammering,” he said. “I’m Latino. I’m conservative. There’s people that are a different color, and even if we don’t have the same ideas, they’re still human beings.”
