Four years after the ‘Muslim ban’ migrants view the US with hope – and caution

The policy, recently scrapped by Joe Biden, rejected visas for an estimated 42,000 people, and did nothing for Americans' safety

Their travel documents were meticulous, and security checks showed no red flags. Your case looks great," an apologetic American consular officer told Hedieh Elkhlasi's parents at the US embassy in Armenia. But because of the executive order, I just can't print a visa for Iranians."

The rejection was one of tens of thousands issued by US embassies across the world over the four years since Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13769, the first of several attempts to enforce a policy that became notorious as the Muslim ban". Legal challenges chipped away at some of the restrictions, but travel bans on citizens from more than a dozen mostly-Muslim majority countries survived - until they were scrapped by President Joe Biden in one of his first acts in office.