"Governing Through Confusion": Three Lessons From My Interview with The Guardian

The Guardian featured Maanvi Singh's full-length interview with me on their front page today. Let's talk about it.

Immigration policy is one of the most contentious and complex areas of American politics, but making sense of it often requires looking beyond the surface.

This was a key theme in my recent discussion with The Guardian, where I tried to briefly unpacke how executive orders under Trump’s administration function—not just as legal tools, but as strategic weapons in a larger political project. These orders often work in ways that aren’t fully captured by their legal text. Instead, their true impact is revealed in the ways they target specific groups, normalize extreme ideas, and cultivate public support for policies that test the boundaries of legality and constitutionality.

This process of analyzing executive orders has been a deeply personal and professional journey for me. As a scholar and communicator, I often find myself caught between two distinct roles. On one hand, I’m trained to interpret these policies through a technical lens, scrutinizing their legal structure, language, and authority. But on the other hand, I’ve had to actively remind myself—and others—that a purely legal reading often falls short of grasping their broader political effects. Executive orders don’t exist in a vacuum; they are wielded as tools to influence public opinion, normalize far-reaching policies, and build narratives that shape how we think about governance itself.

It’s a tension I feel acutely at this moment—both as I analyze these policies in depth and as I discuss them with others. I’ve come to realize that understanding executive orders requires a dual approach: one that pays attention to their technical legal framework, but also one that steps back to examine how they operate politically. This dual perspective shaped my conversation with The Guardian and helped me distill three key takeaways I believe are essential for anyone trying to make sense of these tools in Trump’s unique approach to governing and presidential politics.

I want to take a moment to express my appreciation for Maanvi Singh, who took the time to interview me and write the piece for The Guardian. She’s new to the immigration beat at the paper, and I look forward to her challenging but valuable work over the next few years. I know many people are skeptical of major news outlets, but in my experience, immigration journalists are some of the most hardworking and dedicated professionals out there. They’re doing their best to get accurate, timely, and nuanced information into the hands of the public, often while navigating an incredibly complex and polarizing issue.

1. Urgency Meets Ambiguity

The urgency around understanding executive orders is entirely valid—these documents can have immediate and far-reaching consequences. However, they also leave as many questions as they provide answers. I find this kind of writing to be sloppy, but it’s clear that the standards I would want to see as an immigration scholar are not the standards the Trump administration’s immigration team was aiming for. In many cases, ambiguity may be intentional, either to distract from more subtle strategic points or to create opportunities for broader interpretation.

For readers who are not deeply entrenched in immigration policy analysis, I want to emphasize that there are countless passionate professionals doing mostly invisible work right now to help people make sense of these executive orders and prepare for what might come. Their work matters deeply, even if it’s not always visible to the public. And, indeed, I will share more substantive conclusions from these EOs shortly and add links to further resources as they are quickly becoming available.

If you do want to read them for yourself, I have made editable copies and PDF versions available online through an open Google Drive folder.

2. Governing Through Chaos and Confusion

A key tactic embedded in these executive orders is governing through confusion. While some parts of these documents contain straightforward directives, others mix dubious arguments with legitimate ones, creating an environment ripe for misinformation, fear, and uncertainty. This confusion isn’t an accident—it’s a strategy designed to disempower communities and complicate advocacy efforts.

It’s important to recognize that fear and confusion are not abstract concepts. Years of research show that they lead to real behavior changes at the individual, family, and community levels. One book I highly recommend on this topic is Immigrants Under Threat by Greg Prieto, which explores how fear shapes the lives of immigrant communities and create disincentives to social visibility and political action. These dynamics have tangible consequences, and understanding them is essential to also understanding when and how and why immigrants mobilize to resist the effects of enforcement policies.

It’s worth noting how peculiar and contradictory the strategy of governing through chaos is, given that the rhetorical justification for many of these border policies is that the border itself is chaotic. This raises an important question we should all grapple with: who defines what chaos is, who is responsible for causing it, and how is confusion strategically used—or abused—to achieve certain political ends? Understanding these dynamics is essential to unpacking not only the content of these executive orders but also the broader narratives they aim to construct.

3. Be Intentional with Your Attention

Given all of this, I encourage readers to be guarded and intentional about where they place their attention and who they trust. While I do my best to provide straightforward, well-reasoned updates on these issues, I recognize that not everyone shares these values. Social media companies, for example, profit from fear and panic by amplifying divisive content to keep you engaged.

This is why I keep returning to the idea of building habits and routines that honor your well-being and your role in a community. Whether it’s through physical exercise, daily chores, or turning off your screens to read a book, these small, intentional actions can ground you in a time when fear and confusion seem overwhelming. We have to care for ourselves and each other, even as we navigate these complex and challenging policies.

The Spirit of Simplicity in Uncertain Times

Wrapping It Up

My hope is that these three takeaways—acknowledging the ambiguity of executive orders, recognizing the strategy of governing through confusion, and staying intentional with your attention—can help you engage more critically and constructively with the challenges at hand. While the policies themselves can feel overwhelming, the collective effort to analyze, prepare, and resist is ongoing, and there’s strength to be found in that shared work.

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