For many Americans, the Trump administration has meant 17 months of gasps. Lies, insults, broken treaties, fights with the country's closest allies such as Canada and Mexico shook their assumptions about the way the United States conducted itself.

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It was becoming so numbing that some people wondered, "What would it take for Americans to get upset?"

Over the past week, we learnt the answer: separating parents who seek asylum from their children, putting those children into detention camps and flying some of them hundreds of miles away.

No matter what they felt about the bigger picture of immigration, a topic on which many Americans disagree, the smaller picture truly touched their hearts.

The issue wasn't who was allowed to come to the United States. It was fairness.

The feeling resonated across political parties, across social classes, from New York to California, Michigan to Texas.

One of the first and most surprising to speak out was former first lady Laura Bush, who lives in Houston, Texas, a border state with Mexico.

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Mrs Bush, whose public advocacy has largely been confined to literacy causes, wrote a scathing opinion piece in the Washington Post denouncing the separation of children from their parents, calling it "immoral".

Other longtime Republicans chimed in, including party operative Steve Schmidt, who managed the 2008 campaign of John McCain and worked for Mrs Bush's husband.

He quit the Republican Party in a series of tweets, said he was becoming a Democrat and denouncing Mr Trump.

Meanwhile, the billionaire Michael Bloomberg, the former Republican governor of New York City, said he would give money to Democratic candidates for the House of Representatives, whose Republicans stood with Mr Trump in support of the child separation policy.

There were defenders too

Mr Trump's most fervent defender was one of his cabinet secretaries, Kristjen Nielsen, who defended the policy at a White House news conference and on Twitter.

But on Tuesday night, Ms Nielsen was booed at a Mexican restaurant, an irony not lost on anyone following the story, and forced to beat a retreat.

It was notable that the President's daughter and unpaid advisor, Ivanka Trump, the mother of three of Mr Trump's grandchildren, remained silent while her father figured out what to do.

Meanwhile Americans in all corners of the country began to sign up for protest marches against the separation policy planned for June 30.

Only last week, Mr Trump acknowledged that he would not admit when he was wrong. And he still did not, even as he told federal officials to stop separating parents and children.

Protesters rally near the Intrepid Air and Sea Museum where President Trump is expected to visit, Thursday May 4, 2017, in New York. ( AP: Bebeto Matthews )

Muslim ban, health care also stoked American anger

There have been other times during his administration when Americans rose up in anger at his policies.

One came early in his tenure, when they spoke out against and filed suits to stop the Muslim ban, which barred people from selected Middle East countries from entering the US.

Hundreds demonstrated at LA airport after Donald Trump first issued the travel ban. ( AP: Reed Saxon )

More people were upset when Mr Trump tried to eliminate the federally mandated health care program that was one of Obama's signature legislative programs (the plan has been amended, although much remains in place).

The three situations are linked by the concept of fairness, but nothing generated the pure rage that Americans displayed in the past few days. The situation even caused one of the country's steeliest television commentators, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, to cry on air.

Mr Trump's order is by no means a victory for proponents of leniency for Latin Americans seeking refuge in the United States. There is no plan to reunite children with their parents.

Officials in states like Michigan, Florida, Washington and Texas have no idea what they will do with babies, toddlers and youngsters left on their hands.

It is likely that thousands of people will be turned away at the border. But, the past weeks showed that they have Americans' sympathy.

And that there is a universal language spoken across a fractured country: fairness.

Oh, and Ivanka Trump? We finally heard from her.

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Micheline Maynard is an American journalist and author.