Next a discussion with political strategists and call policy officials on immigration policy and 20 20 election. We talked about her recent bowl and the possibility of political compromise. The Bipartisan Policy Center hosted this event. Thank you for coming out, welcome to the Bipartisan Policy Center and thank you very much for joining us for our conversation on immigration and the 2020 election before we get started we are Live Streaming this event andvideo of the event will be available on our website after were done. Therefore when it comes to q and a we will ask that you wait for the microphone so people who arguing us on their computers or phones or whatever can understand the questions. We invite you to along with us in the events using a tag that you see life. We will see some staff that will be treating the event as well. And just to do a little bit of the scene center and teresa brown director of immigration and policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center and we have been working on the immigration issue here since 2013 when ourimmigration task force was formed. Immigration had become a highprofile national issue. Increasingly important to our collections , its also becoming more partisan since we hadnt noticed that. But partisanship is not good for actual solving problems. Bbcs job and what we do on a regular basis is working to find bipartisan Common Ground solutions to the nations biggest problems and none of these issues i think is more in need of this and immigration last year we conducted a nationwide poll to find out what types of Immigration Reform americans really wanted. And we found interestingly enough there was more Common Ground that imagine. We call this coming round the new middle and you can find those results on our website at bipartisan policy. Org flash new middle. But we are now pretty deep into the campaign season, the president ial electoral races are well underway. Members of congress are gearing up for their campaigns next year as well and so we wanted to get a sense ofhericans voters on this issue now and particularly whether or not there is appetite for compromise on the issue. So we partnered with morning consul to conduct a poll last month on that topic. The voters wont want their elected officials to work across the aisle and ifso, what compromises on immigration did they find acceptable. So we will be presenting results of those goals today. Following the presentation we will have a Bipartisan Panel of experts in policy and politics to talk about the immigrationdebate. Not about the polls but also where they see this going both as an issue and how we might get to solving also politically , how is it going to play in the election so president ial and congressional so there will be time for two and a at the end so think of your good questions as we go and now let meintroduce our opening speaker. Tyler sinclair is Vice President at morning consul, he has been conducting polls for many years for them and caroline fine has been the primary person working on this. An overview poll results, you have a memo that they did with summaries and the detailed results of the polling are available on our website for those that like to get in the to the numbers without further ado ill ask tyler and carolyn to come forward. Thank you for that teresa and thank you all for that. I want to say its always very exciting to see a group of smart, dedicated people coming together to talk about the issues that are facing our nation but just so you all know, imgoing to go over a couple of key points about what we found in the data. And a couple of quick results before i turn it over to carol to go more in depthwith this topic. Just the quick overview of this is where going to look at the importance of immigration so folks at home can vote for020 and what we see is overall for Democrats Health care is going to be the most important issue but immigration will be less important to the republicans and then looking overall at the desire for compromise in congress, while republicans and democrats both say immigration is important, we do see there is a lot of area for compromise when it comes tothis topic. So just looking overall, starting here at the top of my results, when we asked voters the top three most important issues to them when it comes to their vote in 2020, what we see is among Democrats Health care is the most important issue to them with about 56 percent saying that it is their most important policy issue but when we look at republicans for the top three issues for them coming out tovote , we see that its immigration at about 54 percent saying that willbe one of the most important issues for them thinking about how they will vote in 2020. And then when we asked voters talking about policies and plans overall, the various policy proposals Going Forward, how important is specifically their immigration plan to how you will vote in 2020 or how important is that too when youre evaluating that candidate so what we see is overall registered voters about 80 percent or so or 80 percent plus say the immigration plan of the 2020 candidates are very important to them and how theyre going to vote but whats interesting here is when you look at the intensity among the different parties, when you ask that question to democrats, out 40 percent of them say that 20 20 immigration plan will be very important for their vote choice but we break that out among republicans, 63 percent of republicans say that will be very important to evaluating a candidate for them so like you saw on the prior slide when it comes to the intensity of this issue, its much more intense among the Republican Party and it is among the democrats. So looking at this next topic before i turn it over to caroline is thinking about this issue of compromise and what voters are willing to look at when it comes to compromise. What we see is acrosstheboard 75 percent or three in four voters say its important to them that their legislator or their member of Congress Work collaboratively oracross the aisle to find solutions to the immigration problem. Only, less than 25 percent acrosstheboard, very few people are saying they would prefer their member of Congress Taking their principles when it comes to immigration so obviously we see strong broad bipartisan support with 80 percent of democrats saying they would like their member of congress to be collaborative when it comes to immigration and 75 percent of republicans but what we have in this next session and im going to turn it over to caroline to talk about is some of the specific nutsnd lts of the policy of where republicans rank it in terms of priority when it comes to immigration and how willing democrats and republicans would be to compromise on these policies so ill go ahead andturn it over to caroline to walk through the next couple of data points. Thank you tyler. So before i dive into this, i want to make sure to explain the wrath that you all are looking at as it can be a little bit confusing at first glance. So what were looking at here, we asked republicans about seven immigration proposals and we asked republicans taking the survey those proposals in order of importance. The red aon the screen, those represent the percentage of republicans who write the proposals to the left as their number one most important proposal. So looking at the screen here you can see that 35 percent of republicans rank the wall as the most important policy priority. We also asked democrats about these same republican proposals but instead we asked democrats how willing they would be to compromise on this proposal in a bill that would also contain their cost immigration priorities so the border. Represents a percentage of democrats who say that this is their number one most willing to compromise on policy so for example 11 percent of democrats writes that they would bemost willing to compromise on the wall. So when were looking at these results, what we want to see is we want to see those not be closer together in order to find bipartisan solutions. We dont just want them to be closer together, we want them to be further down the axis. We want them to matter to voters. So looking at potential for bipartisanship as it relates to republican policy priorities, we see that increasing spending onBorder Security is a place where we might be able to get something done. But at the same time there are clear barriers to entry when it comes to immigration policy and compromise. We see that the most important disease for Republican Voters heading into 20 20 is getting a wall built on the southern border and get its not an area where democratsare you willing to compromise. Now we let this on its head. We asked democrats to write democratic proposals in terms of importance. We asked republicans to rank those same proposals ontheir willingness to compromise on those proposals. So here for example 22 percent of democrats rate providing permanent legal status for those who came to the uss children and are not currently residing legally in the us commonly known as dreamers, 22 percent of democrats read this as the most important policy priority and 20 percent of republicans are most willing to compromise on that priority. So they cannot where there might be room for middle ground we see that its a place where we might be able to get something done. At the same time, allowing children seeking asylum at the border to enter the country without fear of being detained or separated, we see that 21 percent of democrats rank this is their most important policy priority, yet only 11 percent of republicans rank this as a priority that they be willing to compromise on. That is an area where there might be less room bipartisanship. Additionally here you will see the wall is a place preventing the wall is a place that 17 percent of republicans rank as their most important priority yet only eight percent of republicans would be willing to compromise on the wall. So thank you to the pc for having us. Im going to turnit back over to teresa to talk more about these results. So as you can see, ive got the button wrong. Theres interesting results here. First and foremost, i take away that voters do want their members to try to work across the aisle but there still is a lot of room for divide on what exactly the policies are not candidate people together. But there is some room for compromise. So we have a lot more detail on these policy priorities but i do think that what this strikes to me is that sometimes i think the framing of the conversation in the National Debate has been very black and white. And i see that particularly in thediscussion about the wall and Border Security. The wall has become symbolic. It has become highly divisive issue of Border Security generally is not as specific so sometimes and what i think were in a moment now, the weight issues have been bring their leaders and the politicians in the press has led to increasing divisiveness. It doesnt necessarily reflect underlying views of some of the issues so one of the questions that we have Going Forward and hopefully our panelists can talk about it is out of the public framing these issues impact where voters are and the ability to actually get things done onthe issues. Training. I first want to bring up casey higgins. Casey has nearly a decade of experience in the u. S. House of representatives most recently with House Speaker paul ran as assistant to the speaker for policy and trade counsel. In that role casey was responsible for devising the speaker and the Republican Leaders on a number of matters including immigration and the Bipartisan Policy Center. Next i want to bring up tyler sinclair. Shes the cofounder of an organization that invests in leaders and ideas that would create a more powerful and active electorate. Stephanie is among a small group of advisers who serve president obama in senior roles for his president ial campaign in both terms in office she has served in real ship rolls for a number of lawmakers on capitol hill. Next i want to invite kevin madden executive Vice President for advocacy at Arnold Ventures one of the nations leaders leading philanthropic organizations. Kevin served as a senior strategist and spokesman on three president ial campaigns from 2004 to 2016 including the 2012 campaign. Salsone Advisory Board a Bipartisan Policy Center action. And tyler moran is the director of immigration and its been a theater nation since its founding in his 20s experience developing and implementing immigration policy for tyler previously served as policy adviser to senator harry reid. He serves as the deputy policy director immigration of the white house domestic policy counsel under obama or the teen is unmanaged development and implementation of doc and the 2013 Immigration Reform bill. As you can see her palace have an extensive background in immigration policy so we can just jump right into the conversation. I first want to start with reflecting on the survey results that we were just presented. If you want to start casey what stood out to you in those results . Its interesting over the past year or so how much immigration in general has become a much more important issue for republicans and i think thats part of donald trump bringing a lot of attention to the issue. Its been interesting to watch the new candidates that come up in members that are getting up and giving a stump speech included in every single one of those speeches and ads and all those introductory statements to the public about why these people continue to represent them in congress. I think that shift in the Republican Party in terms of the important as has been surprising to watch but also it can be helpful in trying to get something done on the legislative front. I think for me as i read through the more detailed questions last night what really stood out to me were two things. One i just do not understand it because i think republicans at one point where worth 20 billiondollar fall that will be in effect give. Largely folks dont. A point to work from but for some reason the symbolism is so important to republicans and to conservatives. As we looked at the substance of what people are willing to agree on and tion that people want their members of congress to work togethe acros the aisle and when you get into the system like what the immigration policy discussion should be about you can see theres not much difference in a lot of willingness to compromise on things like Legal Immigration import security on both sides of the aisle but once you take the wall out of the conversation he gave me great hope that its not the National Conversation we are having today and as we were talking about before there used to be a world bewitched the most controversial part of immigration policy was getting business labor in the room to negotiate. I would love to live in that world again. I actually think we could probably be a lot more compromising on some of the substantive stuff. On the product of immigration my parents came from ireland. I look at this as an irishman that i cant help but access over the bad stuff. With this data along with other data that ive seen about whats driving and shaping partisan worldviews and for me i think it demonstrates that you have republicans and democrats with entirely different ways of looking at this issue and thats one of the huge challenges we are going to continue to have. They say men are from mars and women are from venus. This is republicans are for mercury and democrats are on pluto when it comes to the gap. They are very far apart and even though the poll does show glimmers of hope for the number sort of the line together the details matter very much and ultimately the political process are very far apart. The intensity of a most vocal minorities on this issue i think continue to drive the policy and that continues to be a challenge. I totally agree. We have done a ton of polling and whoever the American Public has supported anywhere from humane treatment acrosstheboard the public has been there. The problem now is our lawmakers are there as because you look at the polling and whats important to the American Public. Health care and the economy are always going to be top of mind for republicans as well so when you have a small minority within the Republican Party they are the loudest. There are republicans who want to stick their neck out and do things in a bipartisan way. They just get slammed because for that part of electric immigration is important to them and its not really an award for them so they dont stick their neck out. They agree with it and they supported and there are consequences for doing the wrong thing and rewards for doing the right thing. Speculative piggyback on that because we did see that acrosstheboard. Immigration is more motivating issue for republicans than democrats to what is up in for democratic candidate running for president but also for congress . Can they break out in any particular way . We did some polling of voters in atul gawande states and what we saw is people are sick of the rhetoric in politics and they support Humane Solutions that dont know what democrats dance only 30 of voters did very well with democrats are literally saying im for solutions and using words humane and responsible those words will go a long way to address the American Public were democrats stand on the topic. I would say three things. One, i think as it relates to how democrats get it into the conversation on the left. One is we have all in into this trap around the wall versus open borders. That is a completely false narrative. Yes democrats on Border Security and