With the stroke of a pen, President Joe Biden has ended his predecessor’s ban on travelers entering the United States from several Middle Eastern and African nations, fulfilling a campaign pledge to dismantle policies seen as discriminatory against Muslims.
A week after taking office in January 2017, President Donald Trump issued an executive order banning nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syrian, Sudan and Yemen — that he said posed a national security threat. The hastily announced travel ban created scenes of chaos at international airports, a slew of federal lawsuits and protests across the country.
