When people speak, even presidents must listen

I was beginning to think that Donald Trump could get away with almost anything.

I wasn’t sure that the checks and balances the Founding Fathers had put in place were working on this president.

I had begun to wonder whether sensible Americans had grown tired of trying to hold all of it at bay.

I feared that Trump might have been right about us all along, that he indeed had his finger on the pulse of America. That we were not the compassionate nation we had purported to be. That he had discovered flaws in us that we didn’t know we had. And then the people spoke. They had seen babies snatched from their mothers, and they’d had enough.

They would not accept Trump’s conflicting explanations for separating Central American refugee children from their parents as they sought asylum at our border. They saw through Trump’s deception and called him to the mat.

So for the first time in his presidency, Trump was forced last week to do something he’d never done— listen to the majority of American people. They had spoken in a unified voice, and he could not afford to ignore them.

In the midst of a public outcry, Trump ended the practice of separating families at the border, though he vowed to continue his “zero tolerance” policy of locking up those who enter the country without proper documentation.

While Americans are used to Trump playing to his base, this time he had to listen to people who aren’t among his most loyal supporters but rather Democrats, Republicans and independents who likely voted for someone else for president.

Two-thirds of Americans, according to national polls conducted last week, said they disapproved of the Trump administration’s practice of taking immigrant children from their families and putting them in U.S. government facilities.

When it came to tearing families apart, it didn’t matter, for the most part, where they stood on the combative issue of immigration. They knew what Trump and his people were doing was wrong, and we told him so— together.

For once, Americans didn’t allow their personal feelings about Trump to get in the way. Though he has tried to convince the nation otherwise, this wasn’t about his opponents using crying children to make a political statement.

Though Trump attempted to make the case, it was not about Americans choosing to stand behind criminals rather than families who have lost loved ones at the hands of violent immigrants.

This was about humanity, compassion and what’s good for America. We haven’t seen such unity for a very long time. And it has given us renewed hope.

Of course, it is impossible to sway Trump’s staunchest supporters. So it is not surprising that 27 percent of Americans polled supported the separation policy.

But for the rest of us, this latest episode in Trump’s anti-immigration crusade was yet another reminder of the problem we have created for ourselves by placing someone so destructive at the helm of the most powerful nation in the world.

We have done the world a disservice. And if we allow it, Trump will seal America’s fate.

The terrifying drama did not end with his executive order stopping the separations. In fact, it became more complicated.

On Friday, administration officials frantically tried to figure out which child had gone where and which child belonged to which adult. Clearly, there never had been a workable plan in place for reuniting more than 2,000 children with their parents.

That’s scary and unacceptable. But it is not surprising.

The Trump administration has a history of implementing complicated immigration policies without figuring out the end game. Mass confusion resulted last year when Trump signed an executive order for an immediate travel ban from seven predominantly Muslim countries, causing chaos at U.S. airports and disrupting travel for thousands of people around the world.

Last September, we saw another serious lapse when the administration suddenly rescinded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, throwing the future of nearly 700,000 so-called “Dreamers,” into question. These young people, many of whom came to America at a very young age, risked being deported to a country that was not their home. A federal judge stepped in and stopped it.

It isn’t as if most Americans have just sat around quietly and allowed Trump to do whatever he wants, though. From the day of his inauguration, we have taken to the streets to protest our displeasure with this president and his policies.

For a long time, it appeared that we couldn’t even make a dent in his armor. Now we know that his protective shield is not impenetrable.