So I've been taking project management classes. And I've run a lot of projects. And here's how you run a good project.
1. Understand the needs.
2. Figure out what you are going to do about it.
3. Build that solution, prepare for it, deploy the resources for it, test it, plan the deployment process.
4. Deploy it.
5. Monitor what's going on to make sure that the change took place well.
6. Declare victory and have a party.
The Trump Administration's execution of their "Zero Tolerance" immigration policy was do 2, do 4, do 6.
No really understanding of what's going on, certainly no planning or consideration of what it might mean, or what harm it might do, or even what the political fall-out would be.
Or, let me put it another way: If you are going to pursue a draconian policy that will clearly mean that kids will be torn away from their parents, then you must plan both for what is going to do with those kids and how you will reunite those kids and parents at the other end of that process.
(This assumes you have already done the moral calculus regarding this policy and decided that the existential threat to the nation outweighs the horror of ripping kids from their parents — and are ready to stand up and defend that moral calculus.)
Instead, the Trump Administration just set up the policy, and then started scrambling to find enough chain link fencing and empty warehouse stores and tent city sites to build on military bases, and then realized that they had to duck answers, then lie, then make up stuff, then start planning, then still lie about how parents would be reunited with their children.
(This is making the huge assumption that the principles involved actually give a flying fuck about moral calculus or pain-and-suffering or trauma. That this is simply being a bunch of bumbling ideologues who had no idea of what they were doing, and so did it really badly, as opposed to these being evil people who actually revel in suffering, or psychopaths who simply cannot empathize with it. Which, given the number of high ranking government officials on record before the fact talking about how this would be a fabulous deterrent against illegal immigrants, is probably a poor assumption.)
This story is from a Assistant Federal Public Defender in El Paso, Texas, who is having to explain to parents why he can't tell them where their children are, and to Federal Prosecutors why that's a question that they should be able to answer. It's worth reading.
