BY ROSE ADAMS
The repeal of the Middle
Eastern and African travel
ban — which President Joe
Biden enacted his fi rst day in
offi ce — has sent a wave of relief
over thousands of Brooklynites,
many of whom have
been separated from their
families for years, locals said.
“It’s a very exciting moment
and it’s a relief,” said Nasser, a
Brooklynite of Yemeni descent
who did not give his last name.
“Hopefully, this new administration
builds on the foundation that
this country is set for.”
The executive order, signed by
former President Donald Trump
in 2017, placed stringent travel restrictions
on citizens of Syria, Iran,
Iraq, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, and
Sudan seeking to enter the United
States. Trump argued that the ban
would curb terrorism, but critics
called the move discriminatory
and callous, especially as residents
of Syria and Yemen sought refuge
amid the countries’ civil wars.
Civil rights organizations
lobbed a series of court challenges
against the restrictions, but while
one court challenge removed
Iraq and Sudan from the banned
list, none overturned the ruling.
The Supreme Court upheld the
Trump’s order in 2018.
After the ban’s announcement
in Jan. 27, 2017, Yemeni bodega owners
and immigrants rights groups
took to the streets in protest, rallying
COURIER L 12 IFE, FEBRUARY 5-11, 2021
around Borough Hall and
Washington Square Park. The restrictions
lit a fire under the Yemeni
community, one Arab leader said.
“That’s one thing that came
out of this ban: the Yemeni community
is very much politically
engaged,” said Rabiyaah Althaibani,
a Bay Ridge activist who
founded a political consultant
firm called Arab Women’s Voice.
“That’s because we came out and
said, ‘Listen, we need your votes!’”
Nasser, whose family runs the
popular restaurant Yemen Cafe,
said that the anxiety about the
ban was palpable at the restaurant’s
Cobble Hill and Bay Ridge
locations the day Trump signed
the order. “It was very shocking,”
he said. “People were like, ‘Are we
really going back to this?’”
It was difficult enough getting
relatives out of Yemen. Because
of the war, the US embassy was
closed, and the country’s only operating
airport in the southern city of
Aden was often shutd own, according
to Althaibani, who spent years
helping her now-ex-husband get a
visa to escape the country.
While some Yemenis with
means traveled to other countries to
await their visas, like Althaibani’s
ex-husband, many others stayed in
Djibouti, the most expensive country
in Africa. The extended stays
have put a financial strain on Yemeni
families, Althaibani said.
“They have to support an entire
family in Djibouti, which is
really expensive, for four years,”
she said. “They sold everything
to go to all these embassies.”
Everyone in Althaibani’s circle
was affected by the ban, she added.
“I don’t know a single Yemeni family
who doesn’t have either a relative
or a friend who is banned. Everyone
I know,” she said.
The restrictions also affected
residents in Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst
from Syria and the
other banned counties, an immigrant
rights advocate of Palestinian
A 2017 Jummah prayer outside the Department of Homeland Security.
New York Immigration Coalition.
descent explained.
“I was not directly impacted by
the ban, but my community and
friends were, and it was devastating,”
said Bay Ridge local Murad
Awawdeh, who co-runs the New
York Immigration Coalition.
Awawdeh said he had one Syrian
friend couldn’t travel home
to see his dying father, and another
who was separated from
his wife and child in Yemen for
years as the war raged on and the
COVID-19 pandemic began. “It’s
an incredibly hard situation to be
in in this moment,” he said.
The repeal of the ban was a welcome
change, but it must be accompanied
by more sweeping reforms
in order to be effective, Awawdeh
argued. To hasten the process for
foreigners who’ve already waited
for more than four years to have
their visas approved, the least the
government can do is expedite the
procedure, Awawdeh said.
“I think going to those people
and not making them start all
over again and helping them with
the process ... that would look like
justice in this situation,” he said.
But that might be tough given
the staffing cuts the State Department
sustained during the
Trump administration.
However, Althaibani remains
hopeful for the future. Although
she wasn’t a big Biden supporter,
she said the repeal has already
had a positive impact across
Brooklyn’s Muslim communities.
“Just look at your Yemeni
neighbor, your bodega owner
who is in pain,” she said. “No matter
how much of a centrist Biden
is, look at that difference.”
‘It was devastating’
Brooklynites refl ect on Muslim ban repeal
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