A new poll released by the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune – conducted before the Paris terrorist attacks – reveals that Texas voters overwhelmingly view illegal immigration and foreign terrorist groups as the greatest threats facing the United States.

As the Tribune reported, Daron Shaw – co-director of the poll and a professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin – said the following about the results:

Even before the terrorist attacks in Paris last Friday, Texans expressed deep concern over border security. I may be going out on a limb here, but I doubt Texas voters agree with Bernie Sanders' statement [in Saturday's Democratic debate] that climate change represents a more urgent threat than jihadist terrorism.

A majority (55 percent) of those surveyed agreed with the statement that "undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States should be deported immediately."  Almost half (48 percent) agree with repealing the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which says that all children born in the United States are automatically U.S. citizens regardless of their parents' legal status, whereas 39 percent would oppose this repeal.  Sixty percent disapprove of so-called "sanctuary cities," where local law enforcement officials do not actively enforce some federal immigration laws.

Almost 40 percent of respondents also said that either immigration (18 percent) or border security (17 percent) is the most important problem facing the state of Texas today.  Nearly 70 percent feel that the country as a whole is on the wrong track. Forty-five percent believe that Texas itself is on the right track.

One third of Texan voters said the national economy is better off today compared to a year ago, while others indicated that their family (23 percent) and the Texas economy (29 percent) were in better financial shape than last year.