One of the powerful things about the science of flow networks that forms the basis of this is that it is a science of *patterns* rather than linear mechanical chains of consequences, a much better match to the way things work in communities.

YEP. This ICE policy, seemingly done alongside DOGE, caused panic at universities everywhere, led to dozens of lawsuits (that ICE lost), did enormous damage to US higher ed's international reputation, caused huge amounts of work to be done to stop it ... and is now being walked back. Efficiency!