Barred By The Muslim Ban, Targeted In The U.S.: Iranian Americans Feel Trapped
There are family members Mana Kharrazi has never met. The 35-year-old Iranian American who currently resides in New York has six uncles and aunts on her mother’s side and five on her father’s side ― some of whom are still in Iran.
“I’ve never been in the same room with my mom and all her siblings. I know I might never be able to,” Kharrazi said. “There’s a whole side of a family that I may never see or know.”
Kharrazi, a community activist, is the lead plaintiff in one of several lawsuits challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travel to the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran, which was signed three years ago Monday. On Tuesday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, will hear arguments from three different lawsuits to decide whether or not to dismiss the case entirely out of the lower courts.
Executive Order 13769, which has been revised several times and challenged repeatedly in federal courts, was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018. That same year, the U.S. State Department rejected more than 37,000 visa applications because of the travel ban.
Since the ban’s enactment, couples have been forced to live apart and parents have been separated from their children. Some Americans have chosen to move to war-torn countries just so they could reunite with their families.
It wasn’t until September 2019, nearly three years after the original travel ban went into effect, that Congress finally held its first hearing on the executive order. The hearing at the time highlighted the National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants Act ― also known as the No Ban Act ― a bill introduced by Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) aiming to end the current ban and restrict future presidents from enacting similar bans.
On Monday, Coons and Chu held a press conference reiterating the call to pass the No Ban Act alongside Rep. Ilhan Omar...
