DEAN PHILLIPS: We can fix immigration enforcement without fueling chaos or lawlessness
Our broken immigration system is a stain on both major political parties and leaders, who have instead burdened us with massive debt, the world’s most expensive healthcare and medicines, an uninspired, second-tier public education system and policies that actually incentivize illegal crossings of our borders.
Ronald Reagan would be appalled at both parties, and George Washington would say he warned us as we find ourselves at yet another disconcerting moment in American history.
Today’s crisis is one of our own making: a battle over immigration enforcement in Minnesota — a low-crime state estimated to be home to just 100,000 undocumented people, about half the national average per capita and nowhere close to the millions residing in sunny Texas and Florida. Needless to say, it’s not a stretch to believe Operation Metro Surge is a campaign of provocation and retribution rather than resolution. It’s also not a stretch to contend that common-sense Americans (myself included) believe the porous southern border enabled by former President Biden was as absurd and unreasonable as attempting to deport 14 million undocumented people as current President Donald Trump is endeavoring to accomplish at this very moment.
While we should all celebrate the removal of undocumented criminals from our streets, the misguided and mismanaged effort in Minneapolis will be remembered as one of the most horrifying abuses of American law and decency in my lifetime. It killed two American citizens in cold blood and trampled on the civil rights of countless others, including multiple off-duty police officers in the Twin Cities who were accosted by roving, masked, ID-less, armed ICE agents because they were brown, or black, or spoke with an accent. But the operation did accomplish something that had seemed impossible just a month ago: a progressive left unified with gun-rights advocates, libertarians, police chiefs, rule-of-law Republicans and even a Republican senator retiring at the end of his term and liberated to speak the truth.
While the America to which Ronald Reagan aspired seems like a distant dream, I believe the better angels of America’s massive majority recognize the horrifying consequences posed by incompetent leadership and moral breaks in our national fabric.
Some on the left view Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as an occupying force — an agency to be resisted at every turn. Others on the right see local pushback as undermining lawful immigration enforcement and local public safety.
But to the massive majority, this binary is a false choice.
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The executive branch has constitutional authority to enforce immigration law, and that mandate doesn’t magically disappear because state or local officials object. That’s why some level of cooperation — even if reluctant — makes sense. It prevents chaotic clashes between different authorities, allows shared information and oversight, and ensures enforcement actions are transparent. Refusing to cooperate entirely only heightens tensions and leaves communities less protected and more polarized.
Yes, cooperation must be thoughtful, conditional and rooted in respect for civil liberties. It should not be blind support for every tactic an agency employs. But neither should it be principled obstruction that fuels distrust and diminishes accountability.
Democrats and Republicans alike should want cooperation where it reinforces constitutional order, protects public safety and ensures due process. That’s not capitulation — it’s common sense governance.
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Let’s be clear: the fallout from this operation has been horrifying. People have died. Families have been torn apart. Young children have been detained. These are real harms that demand accountability and reform — not spin and not deflection.
At the same time, dismissing all enforcement as illegitimate invites lawlessness and undermines the very framework of the rule of law, due process and judicial review that protects civil liberties in our country. We don’t want an abdication of enforcement authority, rather a reimagined approach that respects constitutional due process and civil rights.
This is where local cooperation can actually be a force for reform. When state and city officials engage with federal agents, they can help ensure enforcement measures are proportionate, targeted and transparent — rather than arbitrary and alienating.
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But we’ll keep finding ourselves in this destructive battle until we address the root causes once and for all. And there is more common ground on immigration policy than many recognize. I believe:
1. Most of us want a lawful, orderly immigration system that attracts and welcomes high potential contributors while offering reasonable refuge to the oppressed.
2. Most of us want the quick removal of undocumented, convicted criminals, and the application of due process, human dignity and judicial review before the deportation of others.
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3. Most of us want honesty and accountability from federal, state, and local agencies charged with enforcing our laws and protesters who exercise their rights peacefully.
4. Most of us want to fix the broken system with majority support for: Changing our asylum laws, which currently require asylum seekers, legitimate or not, to physically set foot in the United States. That means our law essentially requires an illegal border crossing to legally apply for asylum. Why not require applications to be filed at one of our consulates or embassies around the world before crossing our border?
Devising a pathway to citizenship for those contributing to America, who confess to illegally crossing our borders, who pay a fine to the US Treasury, and who fulfill citizenship education.
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Raising the physical bar for illegal immigration and lowering the administrative bar for legal immigration. We should be recruiting the world’s best and brightest while remaining a place of refuge for the oppressed.
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In the meantime, we must come to some resolution on the leadership and tactics of ICE and uncooperative sanctuary states and cities. Minnesota leaders have rightly voiced their concerns about the violence and societal disruptions tied to these enforcement actions. These voices matter and should be part of the national conversation on reform.
But full resistance — refusing any cooperation — risks turning legitimate grievance into fruitless confrontation. That’s why cities and states should engage with enforcement agencies strategically to make immigration enforcement more just instead of creating battlegrounds that magnify mistrust.
Conflict always presents the possibility for collaboration. The current crisis shouldn’t be an end point, rather a turning point — one where Americans of all political stripes prioritize reforms and enforcement that’s lawful, humane, transparent and accountable.
It’s surely the agenda Ronald Reagan would have fought for, and one we’d be foolish not to embrace as a great nation of immigrants.