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Muslim Community Welcomes Biden's Move To Undo Trump's Travel Ban

A woman holds a sign showing her support for Muslims inside DFW Airport, the night that Trump's 2017 travel ban took effect. Standing near her are four DFW Airport Police officers.
Stella M. Chávez
/
KERA News
A woman holding a protest sign was one of hundreds of people who showed up at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on January 28, 2017, shortly after former President Donald Trump's travel ban took effect. Many protestors stayed there past midnight.

The travel ban, which affected mostly Muslim-majority and African countries, faced several legal challenges and was eventually upheld by the Supreme Court.

President Biden signed several executive actions on his first day in office – one of those rescinds the so-called Muslim travel ban.

In January 2017, former President Donald Trump banned foreign nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S.: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Numerous legal battles and other versions of the travel ban followed. The Trump administration removed Iraq from the list, for example, but added other countries, including North Korea and Venezuela.

The Supreme Court ultimately upheld the ban in 2018, and last year, several African countries were added to the list, including Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania.

Protesters hold signs that say "Refugees are welcome here!" and "No fear, No Hate, Muslims are welcome here" inside Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
Stella M. Chávez
/
KERA News
Hundreds of people protested Trump's so-called Muslim travel ban at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on January 28, 2017. Many stayed past midnight or returned the next day to protest.

Nabila Mansoor, who’s with EmgageUSA in Houston, a Muslim American advocacy group, said the ban tore families apart. One of her friends is a permanent legal resident in the U.S., but couldn't visit her parents in Sudan. They also couldn’t visit her.

"Because of this ban, their attorneys and everyone said, 'Look it is not a good idea for you to visit Sudan right now, because we cannot guarantee that you will be allowed back into the country,' ” Mansoor said. “People have lost loved ones in countries that were under the Muslim ban and were not able to visit and go there for funerals, for milestones, for birthdays.”

The new executive order states it “provides for the strengthening of screening and vetting for travelers by enhancing information sharing with foreign governments.” Plans also call for reviewing the Trump Administration’s vetting practices.

Mansoor said the Trump administration's initial travel ban and iterations of it were part of a larger problem of singling out people based on religion or where they’re from.

"This ban was totally against the values and principles that govern our country,” she said. “This ban really put in place in order to appease an Islamophobic rhetoric that we had seen over and over in the last administration."

Got a tip? Email Stella M. Chávez at schavez@kera.org. You can follow Stella on Twitter @stellamchavez.

KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gifttoday. Thank you.

Stella M. Chávez is KERA’s immigration/demographics reporter/blogger. Her journalism roots run deep: She spent a decade and a half in newspapers – including seven years at The Dallas Morning News, where she covered education and won the Livingston Award for National Reporting, which is given annually to the best journalists across the country under age 35.