Opinion | Minnesota deserves good policy, not political theater

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Good intentions don’t make successful policy. Results do.

Much debate centers on how we can come together when we feel so divided. One place we still can is around goals and the data that tells us whether we’re achieving them.

Minneapolis is not short on opinions or ideology. We are short on good policy grounded in reality and measurable outcomes. Thankfully, good policy does not require shared ideology. It only requires shared standards: a defined public benefit, measurable results and accountability.

Quoting Voltaire, President Barack Obama warned us not to “let perfect become the enemy of good.” My modern update: Don’t let ideology become the enemy of your desired outcome.

Policy is not the goal. Policy is the tool used to achieve an outcome. I believe, at least at top level, we can still mostly agree on end goals.

Both sides acknowledge several basic facts.

Roughly 2,000 to 3,000 federal agents have been deployed in Minnesota. Even conservative assumptions for a multiagency surge (salary, overtime, vehicles, lodging, supplies, per diems and logistics) point to taxpayer costs in the multimillions of dollars per day, not counting indirect costs to communities, local economies and trust in civic institutions.

Minnesota is estimated to be home to roughly 130,000 undocumented immigrants (approximately 1% of the national total, or 2.2% of Minnesota’s population).

Incarceration rates per 100,000 (Cato Institute)? For U.S. citizens: 1,221. For immigrants: 613. For undocumented immigrants: 319 (or about 25% of the rate for U.S. citizens).

In 2024, there were 170 homicides in Minnesota. In Minnesota in 2024, we can estimate one to four homicides involving undocumented immigrants.

Local leaders, including the governor and the mayor of Minneapolis, have specifically asked them to leave.

Is our millions-per-day ICE deployment in Minnesota a strategy that measurably improves public safety? Clearly available data suggests the policy in its current form, for whatever reason, has not improved safety outcomes commensurate with its cost and disruption. The policy is currently failing.

Here’s my centrist view: You can believe we need orderly immigration and still question large-scale operations with unclear objectives. You can support enforcement and still insist tactics be lawful, targeted and transparent.

I believe our state can model a better civic conversation — calm, data-driven and anchored in shared goals. That is how we start to find consensus again. But we can’t come together if we allow national political tactics or local political distractions to hijack public attention while real problems go unsolved.

Like many Minnesotans, I find myself distracted by outrage. I could tell you personal stories about the injustices I’ve witnessed with my own eyes. Or about how I’ve had to reassure my frightened, crying children that it’s safe to go to school, or the memorials for Alex Pretti and Renee Good. But emotions shouldn’t distract us from requiring every leader to answer the same basic question before spending public money on any policy: What is the goal? How does it benefit society? And how will we measure success?

So I’m asking for help reframing our debates. Instead of debating what-about-ism, morality, legality or isolated incidents, let’s insist that elected leaders start with one basic requirement: to clearly state the goal of a policy, its cost, and how success will be measured. If we stay focused on the outcome, the effectiveness of the policy becomes much easier to evaluate.

I know I’m conceding a lot of debatable points to the administration, and shelving many arguments about state rights, civil rights abuses, underlying motives and more, but we should be willing to if it helps us agree on the next best step: ICE needs to leave now.