During the past two weeks our hypothetical chief executive had to make a domestic-policy decision concerning immigraton policy. (Click here to view the full Executive Decision memo for this scenario, written by James Fallows.) The options presented to the President by his or her aides were the following:

*Option A. Closing the borders entirely.

*Option B. Imposing a short-term moratorium on immigration.

*Option C. Encouraging LEGAL immigration while discouraging the ILLEGAL flow.

*Option D. Encouraging more-selective immigration, so that the United States gets the people with the skills it needs.

*Option E. Opening the borders and revolutionizing our relationship with Mexico by recognizing that functionally we are becoming one economy.

The Results

A: Close the Borders: 14%

B: Short-term Moratorium: 11%

C: Encourage Legal and Discourage Illegal: 50%

D: More-selective Immigration: 17%

E: Open the Borders: 8%

Stay the Course. Option C, the middle-of-the-road response to the issue, was the clear favorite with a solid 50% of the vote. By and large respondents felt that the present rules governing immigration were just and adequate but found that their enforcement was lacking. Cracking down on lawlessness was a common theme. Exactly half of all respondents choice Option C, a thirty-three point advantage over its nearest competitor, Option D (more-selective immigration practices), and a thirty-six point advantage over the more drastic Option A (closing the borders altogether). Opening the borders was the least popular option, chosen by only 8% of those polled, following on the heels of option B, a short-term moratorium on all immigration, which garnered 11% of the vote.

Party Lines. Of those respondents who indicated a political affiliation, 37% were Republicans, 31% Democrats, and 24% Independents; of those remaining, 6% were Other and 2% were unregistered. 40% of those who chose Option C were Democrats, 33% Republicans, and 27% not affiliated with either party. On the whole, Republicans favored the more isolationist policy options, while Democrats favored maintaining or liberalizing existing immigration laws: among those who chose to close the borders, 68% were Republicans, compared with only 6% Democrats, and among those who chose to open the borders, 50% were Democrats compared with only 11% Republicans. Option C proved most popular among both Democrats and Republicans--53% of Democrats and 39% of Republicans, closely followed by option A (30%) for Republicans.

The Significance of the Issue. Only one person believed that the immigration issue was completely irrelevant to the presidential election, while a handful believed it to be the single most important issue. 50% of respondents thought immigration policy was "fairly important" as an election issue, 32% believed it to be "very important," and 15% believed the issue to be "not very important."

Among Republican respondents, 13% believed the issue to be "not very important," 50% believed the issue to be "fairly important," 34% thought it "very important," and 3% thought it "the most important." Among Democratic respondents, 2% thought the issue either most important or irrelevant, 25% thought the issue not very important, 43% thought it "fairly important" and 28% thought it very important. Among Independents, unregistereds, and others, 13% thought the issue "not very important," 55% thought it was "fairly important," 28% thought it "very important," and 4% thought it was "most important." When presenting future Executive Decision results, we'll show comparative data demonstrating the relative importance, among respondents, of the various Executive Decision issues presented.

Age. Only 2% of respondents who indicated an age were under 18. 36% of the respondents who indicated their age fell between the ages of 18 and 34. 25% were between the ages of 35 and 44. 22% fell between the ages of 45 and 54, and 15% were over 55. Age had no apparent effect on the choice of option.

Age Range	% of Respondents
Under 18	2%
18-34	36%
35-44	25%
45-54	22%
Over 55	15%

Race and Gender. Breakdowns by gender and race revealed that Executive Decision respondents were still preponderantly white and male, a characteristic that we hope will change over time. The breakdown of choices by race was more or less constant. Women tended to be more more liberal than men: while they made up only 13% of the total of respondents who specified a gender, they accounted for 30% of those who opted to open the borders.

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