Muslim Americans celebrate President Biden’s first-day repeal of former President Trump’s travel ban, targeting several Muslim-majority countries.
The big picture: The repeal of what many critics called the “Muslim ban” renews hope for thousands of families separated by the Trump order.
In the San Francisco Bay Area, Mina Mahdavi, a Campbell cybersecurity engineer, has renewed hopes that her mother, who lives in Iran, can spend time with her grandson, who was born months after Trump signed the ban, ABC7 reports.
- Mahdavi wanted his mother to visit with a tourist visa, but the visa was denied.
New York, Nashwan Mozeb, a Queens winery worker, hopes to see his wife, who is in war-torn Yemen. According to The City, he has been trying to bring her to the United States since 2016.
- “Every day I pray to God to come together because it’s too hard,” Mozeb told The City, saying he expects his wife’s visa application to be approved quickly.
In Chicago, Jihad Al-Nabi, a Syrian refugee who works as a pastry chef, hopes he can reunite with his family, he told ABC7 Chicago.
In Los Angeles, Mania Darbani called her mother, who is in Iran, on the night of Biden’s inauguration, when they recalled her promise to revoke the ban, Reuters writes.
- “It means I can get to you very soon,” Darbani’s mother told him.
But, but, but: The coronavirus pandemic may prevent some families from reuniting as there are travel and visa restrictions.
- There is also a huge volume of visa and exemption cases that need to be resolved.