In a political whiff to Donald Trump’s cantankerous action of limiting immigration while he was the President, the current sworn-in US President Joe Biden on Wednesday ended the ‘Muslim Travel Ban’, that blocked travel to the United States from several dominant Muslim and African countries.
Biden on Wednesday, signed 17 executive orders memorandums and proclamations including ending the Muslim travel ban, just hours after taking the office.
Biden directed the State Department to restart visa processing for individuals from the affected countries and to develop ways to address the harm caused to those who were prevented from coming to the United States because of the travel ban as reported by The New York Times.
During Trump’s first week in office in 2017, Trump implemented the Muslim travel ban, initially restricted travel from seven Muslim-majority nations: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Implemented in 2017 during Trump’s first week in office, the Muslim Ban, The ban faced several legal challenges, but the Supreme Court in 2018 upheld the final version of the measure.
The Muslim travel ban so far restricts citizens from 12 countries — Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria, Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan, Tanzania and North Korea — and some Venezuelan officials and their relatives from obtaining a broad range of US visas, NPR reported.
With another executive order, Biden has bolstered the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that protects from deportation immigrants brought to the United States as children, often called Dreamers.
Another executive order revoked the Trump administration’s plan to exclude non-citizens from the census count, and another overturns a Trump executive order that pushed aggressive efforts to find and deport unauthorized immigrants.
Biden has also halted the construction of Trump’s border wall with Mexico. The order includes an “immediate termination” of the national emergency declaration that allowed the Trump administration to redirect billions of dollars to the wall.