WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:03.520 JUDY WOODRUFF: Nearly eight weeks have passed since President Biden lifted one 00:03.520 --> 00:08.520 of his predecessor's most controversial immigration policies, the Muslim ban. 00:08.960 --> 00:13.120 Yet, despite that early action, many separated families 00:13.120 --> 00:16.080 still are blocked from entering the United States. 00:16.080 --> 00:19.440 "NewsHour" special correspondent James Fox has the story. 00:19.440 --> 00:24.440 JAMES FOX: Inside the arrivals terminal at Louisville International Airport, 00:25.760 --> 00:29.840 a moment once considered impossible is finally taking place. 00:33.360 --> 00:38.320 A family split in two, the mother and children building a new life in Kentucky, 00:38.320 --> 00:41.200 the father trying to escape an old life in Iran, 00:41.200 --> 00:45.120 is finally reuniting after being separated for nearly five years. 00:45.120 --> 00:49.520 FARSHAD AMIRKHANI, Iranian Immigrant: 00:49.520 --> 00:54.240 We proved each other that we are belonging to each other 00:55.120 --> 00:59.840 forever, because even the separation couldn't separate us. 00:59.840 --> 01:04.560 JAMES FOX: Farshad Amirkhani was supposed to fly to the U.S. in 2017, 01:04.560 --> 01:08.240 only months after his wife and children made the journey themselves. 01:08.240 --> 01:13.240 But that all changed when then-President Donald Trump signed an executive order now known by many 01:13.280 --> 01:18.280 as the Muslim ban, a ban which went into force the very same day that Amirkhani was scheduled 01:18.960 --> 01:23.960 to enter the U.S. As a father, Amirkhani has missed out on nearly half of his children's lives, 01:25.040 --> 01:29.840 so he is humbled to be one of the first Iranian immigrants to resettle in the U.S. in years. 01:29.840 --> 01:32.689 FARSHAD AMIRKHANI: Home sweet home? 01:32.689 --> 01:33.480 (LAUGHTER) 01:33.480 --> 01:35.538 WOMAN: This is your home. 01:35.538 --> 01:36.329 (LAUGHTER) 01:36.329 --> 01:37.200 JAMES FOX: 01:37.200 --> 01:42.200 Their reunification is, in large part, thanks to a series of executive orders signed by President 01:42.400 --> 01:47.360 Joe Biden on his first day in office, one of which fulfilled a signature campaign promise. 01:47.360 --> 01:51.360 JOE BIDEN, President of the United States: If I have the honor of being president, I will end the 01:51.360 --> 01:56.360 Muslim ban on day one. And we're going to restore American leadership around the world, starting by 01:58.720 --> 02:03.440 putting our democratic values and our diplomacy at the center of our foreign policy again. 02:03.440 --> 02:07.840 JAMES FOX: Biden also instructed his State Department to resume visa processing, 02:07.840 --> 02:12.480 particularly for those who had already been interviewed by a consular officer, like Amirkhani. 02:13.120 --> 02:17.920 Still, even with many of the Trump era travel bans out of the way, some critics believe 02:17.920 --> 02:22.240 that Biden has not moved quickly enough to reverse all of his predecessor's policies. 02:22.880 --> 02:27.880 Specifically, two travel ban extensions which had halted all legal immigration during the pandemic, 02:28.720 --> 02:33.720 were not lifted by the president until the end of February, five weeks after his inauguration. 02:35.200 --> 02:40.200 Now, for most visa applicants, that five-week delay was just another hurdle in what is already 02:40.320 --> 02:45.320 a very long line of obstacles. But for thousands of others who had been granted temporary visas to 02:45.600 --> 02:50.600 enter the U.S. in 2020 and 2021, a delay like this is potentially disastrous, because, while 02:52.080 --> 02:56.560 many may have been approved to come to the U.S. before those additional bans were put in place, 02:56.560 --> 03:01.040 the expiration date on their visas has not changed, meaning their travel window, 03:01.040 --> 03:05.200 which was originally about 10 months, has been reduced to a matter of weeks. 03:06.160 --> 03:11.040 What's more, a backlog in applications, combined with the pandemic, means some of those promised 03:11.040 --> 03:15.520 visas are now beginning to expire before they can even be delivered by the State Department. 03:15.520 --> 03:19.200 CURTIS MORRISON, Immigration Attorney: What we're facing is, all of their immigration paths end. 03:19.920 --> 03:21.680 And when I say end, I mean end. 03:21.680 --> 03:24.640 JAMES FOX: Curtis Morrison is an immigration attorney who has been 03:24.640 --> 03:28.320 suing the Biden administration to lift the immigration bans extended 03:28.320 --> 03:30.800 by President Trump in his final weeks in office. 03:31.440 --> 03:36.440 His lawsuits, four in total, are still being argued in virtual court on behalf of more than 03:36.480 --> 03:39.760 2,000 plaintiffs who are running out of time to get into the country before 03:39.760 --> 03:44.760 their long-awaited visas expire, that is, unless Congress or the courts intervene. 03:44.800 --> 03:49.800 CURTIS MORRISON: So, these people were extremely lucky to be selected 03:50.400 --> 03:55.400 once. The idea that they could be selected another time is a very remote possibility. 03:55.680 --> 03:59.360 So, basically, they have been selected, they have gone through the process, 03:59.360 --> 04:04.160 they have done everything right. They have made all these arrangements. They went to hotels, 04:04.160 --> 04:07.120 sometimes third countries, where they were ready to enter the U.S. 04:07.120 --> 04:11.840 as soon as the proclamation was over. And then Trump extended it, and Biden let it stay. 04:11.840 --> 04:16.840 JAMES FOX: Ever since his first daughter was born in 2019, Pouria Mojabi, 04:17.440 --> 04:21.440 an Iranian-born tech entrepreneur in Oakland, has been working with Curtis 04:21.440 --> 04:26.440 Morrison to bring his parents to the U.S. to help him and his wife raise their children. 04:26.720 --> 04:29.680 Even though he is an American citizen, his parents' hopes of 04:29.680 --> 04:33.120 watching their grandchildren grow have been made impossible by the Muslim ban. 04:33.120 --> 04:35.200 POURIA MOJABI, Tech Entrepreneur: We just wanted to see my parents, 04:36.080 --> 04:39.200 and we fought every single day. I mean, nothing worked. This past 04:39.200 --> 04:44.200 three, four years, I'm -- I did -- I mean, I personally did a lot of protesting. 04:45.440 --> 04:50.440 I am part of two, three different lawsuits, spent a lot of money for legal fees and lawyers. 04:53.360 --> 04:55.840 Fought with every possible thing we could. I mean, nothing worked. 04:55.840 --> 04:59.520 JAMES FOX: Nor is anything expected to work, at least soon, because, 04:59.520 --> 05:04.320 as of today, U.S. consular officers have not even scheduled an interview with his parents, 05:04.320 --> 05:06.800 an essential step towards being issued a visa. 05:07.920 --> 05:10.720 Responding to questions on how they were addressing the backlog, 05:10.720 --> 05:14.560 the State Department told the "NewsHour": "We are working daily to find ways 05:14.560 --> 05:18.720 to increase the number of immigrant visa appointments, despite COVID-19." 05:19.760 --> 05:22.960 Like many other separated families, that's an assurance which, 05:22.960 --> 05:26.880 according to the Mojabis, is not enough to recover the time that has been lost. 05:26.880 --> 05:31.520 MOSADEGH MOJABI, Grandfather: We wish to be able to see them every day, 05:31.520 --> 05:35.120 to see them when they are born, to see them when they grow up. 05:35.680 --> 05:38.320 And we have been deprived of this. 05:38.960 --> 05:43.960 We can talk to them by the Internet, but we are not sure that they know us at all, 05:48.320 --> 05:50.000 if they love us at all. And that is suffering. 05:50.000 --> 05:55.000 JAMES FOX: Suffering, Curtis Morrison believes, which is unlikely to end with a new president. 05:55.040 --> 05:58.800 CURTIS MORRISON: I do think that the Biden administration will use the pandemic 06:00.480 --> 06:05.480 as an excuse not to follow through with promises, specifically about immigration especially, 06:07.600 --> 06:12.600 because, even if they -- he does undo Trump's policy, it's not going to solve the problems 06:13.360 --> 06:18.360 that Trump created. That is going to take some very creative solutions and 06:18.640 --> 06:23.640 a big commitment, ambitious commitment, and I don't think that the will is there. 06:25.040 --> 06:27.840 JAMES FOX: Despite the families who long for it to be. 06:28.560 --> 06:33.560 For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm James Fox.