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Fabio Rojas, Opinion contributor Published 6:00 a.m. ET Nov. 6, 2020 | Updated 4:04 p.m. ET Nov. 7, 2020

Do protests ever enact real change? Yes. But not all movements are created equal. Here's the ingredients of a successful movement. USA TODAY

Activists should stay focused on what the government does, not who gets elected.

The era ofPresident Donald Trump appears to benearly over and people will soon move on.

Within the Republican Party, there will be a long discussion about whether the party will represent big-government nationalism or try to reclaim its roots as a party of business and limited government.

Similarly, Democrats will need to think about whether they will pursue the progressive vision of Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez orthe more centrist tradition embodied by Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris.

Activists, on the left and right, should take the transition to a new president, and a new balance of government, as a time to reflect on the role that activism has in American society.

We live in an era of polarized activism. When you see a protest, you are likely looking at an assembly of mostly Democrats or Republicans. You rarely see a crowd of people who represent the breadth of American society.

Protesters raise signs outside the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon, in the early morning of July 26, 2020.(Photo: Trevor Hughes, Trevor Hughes-USA TODAY NETWORK)

The extremely partisan makeup of protests is well documented. Tea Party protesters in the 2010s were mainly Republicans, and people who participated in the March for Science in the late 2010s were mainly Democrats.

As a researcher who specializes in activism, I studied the anti-Iraq War movement and found that almost all protesters were self-identified Democrats or members of very left third parties. It is challenging to find any form of civic participation or activism today that is not so heavily partisan.

This is a bad thing. Of course, some forms of politics will almost certainly be heavily partisan by their nature. But there are many issues that deserve to be pulled out of the rigid left-right axis that constrains so much of our politics. Sometimes, we need to realize that positive social change will need a broader coalition where people need to leave their voter registration card by the door.

How should activists improve? First, activists should adopt a new mantra: policies, not presidents. Stay focused on what the government does, not who gets elected or even what elected leaders say. For example, we saw an increase of activists attention paid to immigration during the Trump era because President Trump made it clear that he intends to reduce immigration.

However, increasesin deportation and detention occurred during the Obama and Bush administrations as well. We needed vigorous and strident pro-immigration activism during those presidencies as much as during Trumps. Its about the issue, not which team gets elected.

Second, activists should make bridge building a priority. It may not work for every issue, but activist leaders should take the initiative to identify issues where it makes sense to reach out to the other side.

Anti-war politics during the Bush and Obama years provides another example. Whatever the merits of starting the Iraq War, it was clear by the late 2000s that there needed to be a bipartisan conversation about bringing that conflict to a close.

Activists could have played a role in that conversation by maintaining constant pressure on the Obama administration to completely withdraw troops. Instead, the antiwar movement backed off, Obama allowed troops to stay in Iraq, escalated troop levels in Afghanistan, and intervened in Syria.

Today, we see the pernicious effects of partisanship appearing once again in the discussion of police misconduct. The Black Lives Matter movement has focused on an issue that should be of great concern to all Americans. Every year, approximately 1,000 U.S. residents die at the hands of the police, many are from Black and brown communities, and misconduct often goes unpunished.

One might expect a broad bipartisan conversation about how to improve policing. Sadly, most discussion has become highly partisan. Recent research on Black Lives Matter protests suggests that the movement is strongly aligned with the Democratic Party as most participants self-identify with that party.

Similarly, conservative activists have chosen to focus on the most sensational aspects of Black Lives Matter rather than engage in a dialogue about why it has been so hard to reform police. We need to be better.

If we can reorient the culture of activism to focus on policy over partisanship and bridge building, well get the activism that America needs. When a protest gathers outside the White House, the president will no longer be able to write it off as a motley crew of angry partisans.

Instead, the protest will send a clear message: America needs to talk about this. Not just some of us, but all of us.

Fabio Rojas is the Virginia L. Robertsprofessor of sociology at Indiana University-Bloomington and a senior fellow at the Institute for Humane Studies. He is the author of "From Black Power to Black Studies: How a Radical Social Movement Became an Academic Discipline."

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Why activists for police, immigration reform need to focus on policies, not presidents - USA TODAY

"There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration, No. 1," Biden told National Public Radio earlier this year. "I'm going to make sure that we have border protection, but it's going to be based on making sure that we use high-tech capacity to deal with it."

That could also mean withdrawing National Guard troops Trump sent to the border to support the Department of Homeland Security, a deployment extended through this year.

Beyond the wall, the president-elects broader immigration plans represent a complete reversal of the Trump administrations policies over the past several years and he can accomplish much of it fairly easily.

Biden wants to expand opportunities for legal immigration, including family and work-based visas as well as access to humanitarian visa programs. Bidens immediate moves would largely entail rescinding various actions initiated under Trump that barred immigrants from certain countries and curtailed legal immigration, including new restrictions on asylum and rules making it harder for poor immigrants to obtain legal status.

Biden also has vowed to prioritize the reunification of any families still separated under the Trump administrations now-defunct zero-tolerance policy which led to the separation and detention of more than 2,800 migrant families and children in 2018.

Biden has faced criticism for the number of deportations that took place under the Obama administration, which deported 3 million undocumented immigrants over eight years. (The Trump administration has deported fewer than 1 million over the last three fiscal years.)

During his administration, President Barack Obama focused on deporting recent border-crossers and expanded a federal program that required local law enforcement to share fingerprint information with immigration authorities.

While Biden would continue the Obama administrations enforcement focus on those who pose threats to public safety and national security, he also said the Obama administration waited too long to overhaul the immigration system, and he said he will make it one of his first priorities as president.

Biden also said he will take on the heavy lift of pushing comprehensive immigration reform through Congress a feat not accomplished since 1986 and create a pathway to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S. in his first 100 days. During the 2008 campaign, Obama also promised to push for an immigration reform bill in his first year, but it never came to pass.

Biden has pledged to end workplace enforcement raids as well. Rules implemented by the Trump administration, such as public charge, which allows federal immigration authorities to deny green cards to legal immigrants if theyve used certain public benefits, could also be undone, but that would require invoking the regulatory process, which would take longer.

In a twist, a federal court vacated the public charge rule Monday, teeing up a court battle that could land before the newly cemented conservative majority on the Supreme Court. Notably, Trumps newest Supreme Court appointee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, was involved in the case when it was before the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and will have to recuse herself from weighing in on the case again.

But there are a range of legal routes the Biden administration could take over the issue regardless of whether the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case, including holding up the legal dispute by issuing a new rulemaking plan or settling the lawsuits challenging the rule in court.

In addition, Biden said he will restore the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which grants deportation relief and work permits to those brought illegally to the U.S. as children. The Trump administration tried to end the program, but that effort was blocked by the Supreme Court.

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Biden will stop the border wall and loosen immigration again - POLITICO

Millions of Americans will have decided the next president by Tuesday night, consequently supporting one candidates policies. And in an election as heavily contested as this years, a number of socio-political issues prevail on voters minds, including that of DACA.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as the DREAM Act the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act is a 2012 policy that allows undocumented children brought to the United States to stay in the country for renewable two-year periods.

Boston Universitys Latin American Studies department hosted an online panel Tuesday entitled What Is DACA? featuring a variety of speakers from academia, law and government.

Immigration attorney Brian Plotts started the discussion by introducing the legal structure of DACA, as well as requirements for becoming a DACA recipient. Since 2017, when the Trump administration attempted to rescind the legislation, Plotts said, DACA has significantly changed.

No new DACA applications are now being accepted. Only DACA renewal applications are being accepted, Plotts said during the event. During the course of DACA, too, the age limitation [of 15 years old] was taken out and three-year cards were granted, but thats been rescinded too.

This summer, President Donald Trumps administration continued litigation to overturn DACA, bringing the case to the Supreme Court, where the justices ruled to protect the program.

DACA had left a profound impact on migrant children, said Alberto Fierro Garza, Bostons consul general of Mexico. He said at the event the U.S. has accepted nearly 826,000 DACA recipients since 2012, most of whom were born in Mexico.

We have seen how DACA has changed the lives of many families, Fierro Garza said, hundreds of thousands of Mexican families that at least now have a person that can work legally, that can drive [legally].

Fierro Garza added that the 50 Mexican consulates in the U.S. were actively registering families for DACA documentation before the recent decrease in applications.

Damariz Itzel Posadas Aparicio, a graduate student in BUs School of Theology, said she herself is a DACA recipient, and growing up in the U.S., she was initially oblivious to her familys undocumented status.

Originally, my family did try to go through with asylum. We did turn ourselves in. Unfortunately, we were denied, Aparicio said. I didnt know that these borders even existed, to be honest.

It was not until Aparicio was older that she realized her immigrant status served as an obstacle for her to live a normal life.

Im not legal. I cant do this, I cant go to college, I cant drive, I cant find work for my mother to help her pay all these bills. I cant do anything, Aparicio said. To top it all off, because Ive been here since such a young age, I was so ingrained into the U.S. way of thinking.

Aparicio said she is grateful for the federal DACA program, which she said allowed her to attend college and subsequently pursue a masters degree at BU.

However, Aparicio said an unsolved limitation remains within DACA: the program provides working permits for the children, but not their parents. This has led to the presence of many mixed families immigrant families with parents who do not have legal status and children who are either DACA recipients or U.S. citizens.

DACA did not keep my family together, Aparicio said. As much as it is a blessing for me, it is a curse for the immigrant community, because it means that our families are still divided in this way, and it means that we still suffer because of this division thats constantly recurring.

Cristian De La Rosa, a clinical assistant professor in STH, spoke at the panel about a need for more focus on human rights for immigrants the term illegal, for example, harms migrants by dehumanizing their existence.

When it comes to the discussion of the current pandemic, De La Rosa said in an interview systemic racism especially affects the immigrant community.

A lot of immigrant people are dying now because of COVID-19 and the impact of racism on quality health access, De La Rosa said. It is really like denying the fact that we are human beings.

A September study by the Kaiser Family Foundation and The Undefeated found 70 percent of Blacks believed the health care industry harbored racial biases that made getting proper medical assistance difficult.

De La Rosa said she believes these numbers illuminate the racial biases that members of Black and Brown communities must face in American society.

My hope is that their humanity is respected, that their rights are respected, and that they are given access, De La Rosa said, and be included in this nation as a nation of immigrants.

De La Rosa said events targeting immigration are meaningful to the BU community because they foster a more inclusive and empathetic college environment.

Institutions like BU, for example, can benefit from the participation of DACA recipients in terms of just being more inclusive and providing a more holistic educational process, De La Rosa said.

Natanael Sara Garca Santos, a graduate student studying Spanish, said students sometimes ignore the importance of sharing stories and building deep connections with peers in their community.

Because we are so focused on our career and finishing our degree, we get lost in actually connecting with the people around us and knowing their stories, Santos said. The fact that we pay more attention to the people that are around, the friends, the stories that they have and how different those stories are from our own context, we can just create more empathy and more solidarity with them.

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BU professors host 'DACA' panel, call for immigration reform - Daily Free Press

WASHINGTON: Every candidate in the heat of a US presidential campaign talks up their goals for the first 100 days in office and Joe Biden, the Democrat who challenged President Donald Trump and beat him, has done so for months.

From battling the coronavirus to rejoining the Paris climate agreement and immigration reform, a Biden presidency, he says, would change course on multiple fronts.

"We're going to have an enormous task in repairing the damage he's done," Biden said recently of his rival.

Here is a look at how the first 100 days of the Biden presidency might look.

Biden says he would immediately put a national strategy in place to "get ahead" of the virus and end the pandemic crisis.

That means a nationwide mask mandate and a plan that allows for free and widespread Covid-19 testing, boosting of US medical equipment manufacturing and making any future vaccine "free to everyone, whether or not you're insured."

He also said he wants to "take the muzzle off our experts" and cancel the process to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization, which Trump initiated in July.

Effectively reopening the economy is another immediate priority, says Biden.

The Democrat, relying on his experience wooing lawmakers from both political parties, will demand Congress agree on a huge coronavirus relief package to assist struggling families and ravaged small businesses.

In July Biden unveiled his "Build Back Better" strategy, a $700 billion blueprint to create millions of jobs. Financing would come through tax hikes on the wealthiest Americans and on major corporations.

Biden has also pledged to invest heavily in renewable energies.

Biden has long called for comprehensive action to combat climate change in the United States, battered by growing numbers of hurricanes and wildfires in recent years.

"The first thing I will do, I will rejoin the Paris accord," Biden promised during his debut debate against Trump, who exited the landmark global agreement in 2017. "Because with us out, look what's happening. It's all falling apart."

Biden says he would also convene a climate summit of the world's leading polluters to "persuade" them to make more ambitious pledges to reduce carbon emissions.

Biden has adopted an ambitious $2 trillion climate change plan including a "clean energy revolution" that aims to achieve net zero emissions economy-wide no later than 2050.

He also promised to quickly reverse several of Trump's rollbacks of regulations on environmental standards.

Biden has promised to quickly appoint a bipartisan national commission that would have 180 days to study the judicial system -- which the Democrat said is "getting out of whack" -- and propose reforms.

He has said he is "not a fan" of expanding the US Supreme Court beyond its current nine members.

But other Democrats have expressed a clear preference for the move now that Trump's third nominee to the bench, Amy Coney Barrett, has been confirmed, cementing its six-three conservative majority.

Biden, who authored numerous tough-on-crime bills when he was a senator, is also calling for sweeping criminal justice reform.

His plans include creating a grant program that encourages states to reduce incarceration and crime, ensuring housing for formerly incarcerated individuals and strategies to reduce repeat offending.

Biden has promised a substantial set of immigration reforms should he win the White House.

He has announced he would immediately create a federal task force to reunite more than 500 children who were taken from their parents by the Trump administration at the US-Mexico border.

Biden has described the separations as a "criminal" result of Trump's zero-tolerance policy aimed at deterring migrants from crossing into the US.

He would also rescind the travel bans that prohibit foreign nationals from several majority Muslim countries from entering the United States.

One of his more controversial steps could be action on the millions of undocumented people living in the United States.

"Within 100 days, I'm going to send to the United States Congress a pathway to citizenship for over 11 million undocumented people," Biden said in his final debate with Trump, on October 22.

He also pledged to let minor children who entered the country with their parents illegally -- a group of about 700,000 young people known as Dreamers -- to legally stay and take steps toward US citizenship.

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Busy agenda for Joe Biden's first 100 days as President of the United States - Economic Times

Cheering people flooded the streets of Brooklyn as they hear Joe Biden won the key battleground state of Pennsylvania. Wochit

In New York, car horns and shouts of joy permeated the air as news spread thatDemocratic nominee and former Vice President Joe Biden had won the presidency Saturday morning and Kamala Harris would be his vice president, becoming the nation's first woman of color in that role. In downtown Chicago, hundreds of people gathered across from Trump Tower, hugging, popping champagne and singing We are the champions."And in Lansing, Michigan, hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trumptook to the Capitol stepsto protest what they consider a rigged presidential race.

After anxious days filled withuncertainty, legal wrangling,street protests and unfounded claims of voter fraud from the White House, Biden was unofficially declaredthe nation's next presidentas the painstaking counting ofvotes in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolinaand Alaska drew to a close.

Biden's supporters hoped the outcome would bring renewed effortsto solving some of the nation's deepest troubles, including racial injustice,immigration reform, climate change and the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. Some Republican votersresolved to give Biden a try, while others were not ready to say goodbye to the Trump White House.

Inthe traditionally liberal stronghold of Boulder, Colorado, Marisole Bolanos, 38, listenedSaturday as a wave of cheers spread among the crowd at a farmers market, powered by smartphonealerts. Passing cars honked their horns and people whooped in celebration in this county where Biden took more than 77% of the vote.

These are tears of joy, she said, taking a break from ringing up corn tortillas.

Bolanos said shes been frustrated at how Trump scapegoated immigrants like herself. She came to the United States as a four-year-oldbut has been a U.S. citizen since college.

I feel like the last four years have given us a lot of division among each other. I hope we can all come together in respect for each other, to respect our differences but be a more respectful United States, she said. All that promoting hate and blaming things on immigrants? Ugh. Its a direct attack on who we are.

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In Washington, D.C., Jerry Hauser, 52, a non-profit organizer, rushed out to a street corner to celebrate with his family with noisemakers and percussion instruments. He hoped the next four years would bring, "an end to the madness if nothing else."

"It will bring progress on all the issues I care about, climate change, immigration, civil rights, healthcare, but I think more than anything, end the madness," he said.

Of Harris' historic victory, he added,"It's a huge day for our country, it's an amazing thing. It shows who we really are as a people and that we're better than we've been these last four years."

Many Trump supporters, however, were in disbelief over Biden's victory.

In Michigan,Michael Elkins, of Westland, wore an American flag suit and joined protesters in Lansing. He saidhe suspected election fraud,pointingto adebunked claim that Biden received 100%, or more than 130,000 Michigan votes, during an election update.

"If Joe Biden won legitimately, I'm OK with that," Elkinsaid. "Election integrity is a cornerstone of society that is crumbling away."

In Chicago,Lane Kreisl, 39, came out of the gym high on adrenaline and convinced the election was a fraud despite no evidence to support this theory.

Kreisl, whoserved one tour in Afghanistan and a double tour in Iraq and works in construction, didnt vote in 2016 but backedTrump this year.

My biggest thing with Trump is, he says stuff that maybe is not the most graceful, but hes been attacked for four years," he said. "If it is Biden and Harris, I hope they get treated with more respect than this president did.

Mike Quillen, who owns several restaurants in Sarasota, Florida, said he's concerned that a shift in the White House will mean higher taxes, more regulations and tougher COVID-19 restrictions on small businesses.

"A lot of the policies the Trump Administration has done is to help small business, which is the backbone of the country," Quillen said. "I'm really afraid of a one-size-fits-all" approach.

In Los Angeles County, Dan Welte, 40, who splits his time between Southern California and New Mexico, said he was disappointed Trump didn't win and had lingering concerns about howvoteswere counted.

I hope its a fair election and I hope President Biden will rule as a person who makes both sides happy, said Welte, a sales workerwho said he is registered independent, as he waited to pick up food at an IHOP restaurant. Everyone needs to have their voices heard.

Carol Fleming, 83, of San Francisco, says she burst into tears when she heard the news that Joe Biden had won the presidency. Im just so moved, we can have some normalcy again, she said.(Photo: Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY)

The news came after a tense week that saw Americans on both sides of the political divide taketo the streets. In Michigan and Arizona, Trump supporters converged on vote counting centerswith signs and chants thatdemanded the process be stopped. In Washington, D.C., Biden supporters staged days of largely peaceful protests in front of the White House, dancing and setting off fireworks at nearby Black Lives Matter Plaza.

The Electoral College fight with some state races coming down to fewerthan 50,000 votes highlighted the deeply divided nature of the nation after four years of Republican and Democrat leaders exchanging accusations of corruption and wrongdoing and less than a year after President Donald Trump was impeached by the Democrat-led U.S. House of Representativesfor abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The Republican-controlled Senate later acquitted Trump on both impeachment articles.

When the tension of the week finally was released with news of Biden's win, some took tosong.

Sitting outside a crepe shop in San Francisco, Carol Fleming, 83, burst into tears when she heard the news Saturday morning.

Im just so moved, we can have some normalcy again, she said. She then began singing a rendition of the song "New York, New York." Start spreading the news. she sang.

Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden hugs his wife Jill Biden after his speech during the fourth day of the Democratic National Convention, Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020, at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Del.(Photo: Andrew Harnik, AP)

At a busy intersection in the Astoria neighborhoodin New York City, a largecrowd of roughly several hundred people celebrated, with some holdingBiden-Harris signs and afew crying. At one point, a brief chant of lock him up broke out.

For Ceasar Barajas, 45, Biden's win waspersonal. His aunt in El Paso, Texas, died two weeks ago from COVID-19, and the Biden voter was hopeful that the next few years will help change government systemsthat have resulted inunequal outcomes in health and criminal justice for people of color, he says.

Barajas said thenews made him flashback tothe first time he was slammed to the ground by police. At 14, he was skipping school whenthree white officers grabbed him.The Navy veteran is a first-generation American whos from Houston, Texas. His parents came to the United States from Mexico, he said.

We still have so much work to do, he said. But this is the start.

Molly Rose, a New York City native, heardthe race had been called for Biden as she was in her apartment in Astoria. She grabbed a tambourine and ran out to the street where thecrowd had gathered.

I hope for a more progressive country, Rose, 32, who voted for Biden, said. Less racism, more science. I want more equality.

Biden's victory felt unifying, she said. I feel like Im on the right side of history.

People celebrate in reaction to Joe Biden being declared the presidential winner near the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pa.(Photo: Michael Karas, NorthJersey.com via USA TODAY Network)

The United States and its citizens were uniquely tested this election season.

A new civil rights movement sprung up in the wake of George Floyds death at the hands of Minneapolis police earlier this year. A pandemic that flared in March gathered steam in the fall to render voting even more challenging, with COVID-19 now infecting 120,000 Americans a day as winter nears. And the resulting recession seemedto further galvanize voters.

Those physical and financial pressures conspired to drive voting to record levels, with some 100 million casting votes early and largely by mailto avoid contagion and have their voices heard.

Going into Election Day, myriad polls had Biden comfortably ahead of Trump in a number of states. But, as in2016, Trump upset all predictions of an easy win for Democrats.

Falsely declaring victory while votes are still being counted, President Donald Trump threatened to ask the Supreme Court to halt the counting of legally cast absentee ballots, which he described as a "fraud." USA TODAY

Biden wound up claiming Rust Belt states that Clinton lost four years ago. Trump took Florida, Texas and Ohio, but he struggled in states such as Arizona, where Latino voters seemingly rejected the president's tough stance on immigration and border security. Votes also eluded Trump in Georgia, thanks to massiveget-out-the-vote mobilization efforts in Black communities, including Atlanta.

By and large, rural counties buttressed Trump while urban centers supported Biden. Iowa went solidly for Trump, 53% to 45%, for example, but aglance at the states voting pattern map shows a sea of red counties interrupted by just a few pockets of powerful blue around the hubs of Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.

Americans remained torn Saturday about the election results.

A demonstrator holds up a sign while watching election returns outside the White House, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, in Washington.(Photo: Jacquelyn Martin, AP)

In Oregon,Malcolm Menefe, a 28-year-oldPortland resident, said he did not vote in the 2020 election because,as a Black man, he feels both candidates weren't doing enough for his community.

Under Trump's presidency, he said, racial issues were put on the front page, finally. His actions were called out more. But he worries that a Biden presidency will be more of the same, just maybe more under the radar.

Across the nation, Black voters overwhelmingly picked Biden, securing his White House victory.

Sonna Singleton Gregory, a county commissioner in her fourth term in Clayton County, Georgia, said "we are ecstatic to see Joe Biden win."

"We let our voices be heard. This is a big win for Clayton County," she said.

Clayton is a predominantly black suburb in south Atlanta, where much of the Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International sits. And it was Clayton voters who erased Trump's initial lead in Georgia with overwhelming support for Biden.

A caravan of supporters for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden drives past supporters of President Donald Trump standing on the sidewalk next to the Versailles Restaurant on Oct. 18, 2020 in Miami, Florida.(Photo: Joe Raedle, Getty Images)

In Miami, Rocio Velazquez, a 40-year-old immigrant from Guatemala, spent the week terrified that Trump would somehow pull out a win. Velazquez, a legal immigrant in the process of becoming a U.S. citizenship, said a Biden presidency will hopefully end - or at least tamp down - the divisiveness that Trump sowed.

"I love that he's talking about representing all people, including those who didn't vote for him," said Velazquez, who works for a non-profit that advocates for children's education and health care. "This gives me hope for a more compassionate country, a more inclusive country."

Her only regret? That the COVID-19 pandemic madeit difficultto celebrate.

"I wish we were in a position where we could have a party," she said.

Renee Wilson dances with fellow gatherers in support of counting every vote Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pa.(Photo: Joe Lamberti, Courier Post-USA TODAY NETWORK)

It was a week of uncertainty and fearfor many Americans. Election nightbrought hope to Trump's re-election campaign, as tallies largely reflected in-person voting, which skewed more towardRepublican voters. But it was always clear that votes mailed in weeks ago to avoid polling stations would both lean Democratic and take days to count, in part because some electionofficials, such as those in Pennsylvania, were not allowed to review the ballots until Election Day.

As that process unfolded, Trump began to see his lead dwindle ever so slowly in states such as Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania andimmediately called for the count to stop. His unproven claims of election fraud werecondemnedby politicians on both sides of the aisleeven before the presidentsurfaced Thursday to give a speech outside the White House laced with unfounded charges of corruption and malfeasance.

"If you count the legal votes I easily win," Trump told reporters.

Detroit Elections employees gather around looking at election results on their phone as they count absentee ballots at TCF center in Detroit, on Nov. 4, 2020.(Photo: Kimberly P. Mitchell, Detroit Free Press)

Critics decried the president's speech as an attack on democracy and urged the White House to accept the legal count.

"This is getting insane," said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., and an Air Force veteran who had repeatedly criticized the president for his attacks on the election process.

The big three networks ABC, NBC and CBS took the unusual step ofbreakingaway from Trump's 17-minute talk, cutting toanchors who explainedwhy the president's claims of election fraud were unfounded.

As of Saturday, Biden appeared to have won the election by 5 million popular votes. More crucially,he won the Electoral College, surpassing the necessary 270 votes by taking Nevada, Arizona and Pennsylvania.

Despite the voting results, President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday, "I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!" The president's team continued to dispute the results, saying he would not concede.

In the end,some Americans were ready Saturday to simply move on.

Frank Pelanek, 41, a career firefighter and paramedic from the suburbs of Chicago, was stopped at a stop sign on his way to get coffee when his wife read him the news alert from her phone. He saidrelief washed over him, as much for the Biden win as for having the election finally called.

People celebrate in reaction to Joe Biden being declared the presidential winner near the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Saturday, Nov. 7, 2020 in Philadelphia, Pa.(Photo: Michael Karas, NorthJersey.com via USA TODAY Network)

"I've said for the last four years, there's really nothing Trump has done outside of the environmental things that I don't agree with. So," he said, "there is nothing Biden can't fix in one day with writer's cramp."

Pelanek isan independent who voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004 and for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. This time, he cast his vote for Biden.

I've come to believe that in a more liberal society, I am still free to be conservative, but in a more conservative society, others are not free to be themselves, and that should not be tolerated, Pelanek said.

But his nervous state hadnot completely subsided. With Trump refusing to concede, Pelanek feared violent outbreaks.

In San Diego,Jacqueline Baxter, 35, a stay-at-home mom,said she expected Trump to contest the outcome -- "He's probably going to want a recount" -- and was worried his most ardent loyalists may not accept the results peacefully.

"I'm not sure how violent it could get,"said Baxter, who supported Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders.

Biden supporters, meanwhile, moved forward with their celebrations.

InOak Park, Illinois, resident and PR professional Chevonne Nash, 38, was putting her 3-month-old son down for a nap when she got the news of Biden's win on her phone. She wanted to jump up and yell in excitement but didnt want to wake her son.

I walked out of the room, and I was likeoh my god! she said. I dont think I was ready for the call to be made for some reason, even though its been days. Im surprised. Im excited. Its starting to hit me. Its starting to sink in.

Nash, who voted for Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, said she hoped the new administration would restore dignity to the office and focus on improving access to health care and the quality of public education.

In Arlington, Virginia, people held Biden-Harris signs and yelled from apartment building balconies as cheers erupted in the streets and cars passed by honking.

JC Cheng, 32, stopped outside his apartment building on his way to get groceries to take pictures in his Biden-Harris shirt and mask as people celebrated. Cheng, a Taiwanese-American software engineer who led a coalition group for Asian American Pacific Islanders for Biden, said he said he was particularly proud to see Asian American turnout rise.

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The anger and the pain that weve all felt every time that you got a news notification in the past four years, its so much hope that that is coming to an end,he said.It was an amazing moment.

Contributing: Trevor Hughes in Boulder, Colorado; Dennis Wagner in San Diego; Mark Johnson in Lansing, Michigan;Chris Woodyard in Los Angeles;N'dea Yancey-Bragg in Arlington, Virginia.;Josh Salmanin Sarasota, Florida.;Jessica Guynn andElizabeth Weise in San Francisco;Claire Thornton in Washington, D.C.; Alan Gomez in Miami;Grace Hauck in Chicago;Lindsay Schnell in Portland, Oregon;Ryan Miller and Kevin McCoy in New York, andHollis Towns in Clayton County, Georgia.

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'These are tears of joy': Americans honk horns, dance in the streets as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris claim victory in a deeply divided nation - USA...