In early 2017, two asylum officers went to reporters at Reuters to warn the public of a new immigration policy. This policy would see thousands of children separated from their parents; a humanitarian crisis engineered purposefully by the administration would be underway for the next years. Along the way, dissenters would try to stop the administration’s policy. In her seminal work The Ethics of Dissent: Managing Guerilla Government, O’Leary (2019) describes these types of events as guerilla government. Guerilla government occurs when public servants work against the desires of their superiors either out in the open or covertly. This is done for various reasons; one of which is to hold the government accountable for perceived ethical wrongdoing. O’Leary’s (2019) work tries to explain the concepts of guerilla government through case studies. Therefore, this method will be used to explain the role of guerilla government in ending government wrongdoing. This qualitative case study will examine what role government dissenters of the Trump’s administration family separation border policy had in ending that policy. It will also examine the limitations those government dissenters had and how there are still challenges to the separation of children at the border.
","abstract_html":"<p>In early 2017, two asylum officers went to reporters at Reuters to warn the public of a new immigration policy. This policy would see thousands of children separated from their parents; a humanitarian crisis engineered purposefully by the administration would be underway for the next years. Along the way, dissenters would try to stop the administration’s policy. In her seminal work The Ethics of Dissent: Managing Guerilla Government, O’Leary (2019) describes these types of events as guerilla government. Guerilla government occurs when public servants work against the desires of their superiors either out in the open or covertly. This is done for various reasons; one of which is to hold the government accountable for perceived ethical wrongdoing. O’Leary’s (2019) work tries to explain the concepts of guerilla government through case studies. Therefore, this method will be used to explain the role of guerilla government in ending government wrongdoing. This qualitative case study will examine what role government dissenters of the Trump’s administration family separation border policy had in ending that policy. It will also examine the limitations those government dissenters had and how there are still challenges to the separation of children at the border. </p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Salinas Chacon, Omar"],"institution":"Eastern Kentucky University","degree_name":"Master of Public Administration (MPA)","degree_level":"Master's","degree_discipline":"Government","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2020,"date_issued":"2020-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2020-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:16:00Z","subjects":["Border Policy","Case Study","Guerilla Government","Immigration","Public Administration","Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration"],"languages":[],"rights":["Copyright 2020 Omar Salinas Chacon"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/672","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Salinas Chacon, Omar"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Encompass Digital Archive, Eastern Kentucky University"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Master Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Government"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Master's"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Public Administration (MPA)"]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["Eastern Kentucky University"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Border Policy","Case Study","Guerilla Government","Immigration","Public Administration","Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2020 Omar Salinas Chacon"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/672"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["In early 2017, two asylum officers went to reporters at Reuters to warn the public of a new immigration policy. This policy would see thousands of children separated from their parents; a humanitarian crisis engineered purposefully by the administration would be underway for the next years. Along the way, dissenters would try to stop the administration’s policy. In her seminal work The Ethics of Dissent: Managing Guerilla Government, O’Leary (2019) describes these types of events as guerilla government. Guerilla government occurs when public servants work against the desires of their superiors either out in the open or covertly. This is done for various reasons; one of which is to hold the government accountable for perceived ethical wrongdoing. O’Leary’s (2019) work tries to explain the concepts of guerilla government through case studies. Therefore, this method will be used to explain the role of guerilla government in ending government wrongdoing. This qualitative case study will examine what role government dissenters of the Trump’s administration family separation border policy had in ending that policy. It will also examine the limitations those government dissenters had and how there are still challenges to the separation of children at the border.
"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/PDF"]},{"key":"dc:source","label":"Dc Source","values":["Encompass Digital Archive: Online Theses and Dissertations"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Guerilla Government and Policy: Lessons From The Trump Administration’s Family Separation Policy"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Salinas Chacon, Omar"],"dc:description.abstract":["In early 2017, two asylum officers went to reporters at Reuters to warn the public of a new immigration policy. This policy would see thousands of children separated from their parents; a humanitarian crisis engineered purposefully by the administration would be underway for the next years. Along the way, dissenters would try to stop the administration’s policy. In her seminal work The Ethics of Dissent: Managing Guerilla Government, O’Leary (2019) describes these types of events as guerilla government. Guerilla government occurs when public servants work against the desires of their superiors either out in the open or covertly. This is done for various reasons; one of which is to hold the government accountable for perceived ethical wrongdoing. O’Leary’s (2019) work tries to explain the concepts of guerilla government through case studies. Therefore, this method will be used to explain the role of guerilla government in ending government wrongdoing. This qualitative case study will examine what role government dissenters of the Trump’s administration family separation border policy had in ending that policy. It will also examine the limitations those government dissenters had and how there are still challenges to the separation of children at the border.
"],"dc:format":["application/PDF"],"dc:identifier":["https://encompass.eku.edu/etd/672"],"dc:publisher":["Encompass Digital Archive, Eastern Kentucky University"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2020 Omar Salinas Chacon"],"dc:source":["Encompass Digital Archive: Online Theses and Dissertations"],"dc:subject":["Border Policy","Case Study","Guerilla Government","Immigration","Public Administration","Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration"],"dc:title":["Guerilla Government and Policy: Lessons From The Trump Administration’s Family Separation Policy"],"dc:type":["Master Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Government"],"thesis:degree_level":["Master's"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Public Administration (MPA)"],"thesis:institution_name":["Eastern Kentucky University"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:16:00Z"}