Trump's executive order won't fix broken dialogue on immigration

And when it comes to immigrants and refugees, there are also more than a few right-wingers -- in the Republican Party's "Scarecrow" wing -- who don't have a brain. Even with polls showing up to two-thirds of Americans opposing the idea of separating refugee families at the border, some conservatives tried to defend this indefensible policy of government-orchestrated kidnapping by doing something that wasn't smart: blaming the parents for putting their kids at risk.

Here's a fact of life: Desperate parents do desperate things. During the Cold War, when parents in East Germany helped their children cross the Berlin Wall so that they could live free even if it meant never seeing them again, was that a form of child abuse? I don't think so. In fact, even 60 years later, we applaud their sacrifice and marvel at their strength.

Maybe those mothers from Central America need a better publicist so they can tell their story.

Or maybe we just shouldn't judge people until we've carried on our shoulders the burden they must carry on theirs.

Still, even as he signed the executive order to keep families together, Trump vowed to "maintain toughness" so that the country is not "overrun by people, by crime, by all of the things that we don't stand for, that we don't want."

If we're making a list of things Americans don't stand for and don't want, I would include a few lines about the dysfunctional way in which we talk about a crisis like this: Everyone covers their backside, and no one admits fault. It's not enough to attack the other camp, you've got to portray your side as pure and innocent of any wrongdoing. It's a dishonest mess.

Unfortunately, our defective national dialogue cannot be fixed with the stroke of a pen.

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Ruben Navarrette's email address is ruben@rubennavarrette.com. His daily podcast, "Navarrette Nation," is available through every podcast app.