JUDY WOODRUFF: Nearly eight weeks have
passed since President Biden lifted one

of his predecessor's most controversial
immigration policies, the Muslim ban.

Yet, despite that early
action, many separated families

still are blocked from
entering the United States.

"NewsHour" special correspondent
James Fox has the story.

JAMES FOX: Inside the arrivals terminal
at Louisville International Airport,

a moment once considered
impossible is finally taking place.

A family split in two, the mother and
children building a new life in Kentucky,

the father trying to
escape an old life in Iran,

is finally reuniting after being
separated for nearly five years.

FARSHAD AMIRKHANI, Iranian Immigrant:

We proved each other that we
are belonging to each other

forever, because even the
separation couldn't separate us.

JAMES FOX: Farshad Amirkhani was
supposed to fly to the U.S. in 2017,

only months after his wife and
children made the journey themselves.

But that all changed when
then-President Donald Trump signed
an executive order now known by many

as the Muslim ban, a ban which
went into force the very same
day that Amirkhani was scheduled

to enter the U.S. As a father,
Amirkhani has missed out on nearly
half of his children's lives,

so he is humbled to be one of
the first Iranian immigrants to
resettle in the U.S. in years.

FARSHAD AMIRKHANI: Home sweet home?

(LAUGHTER)

WOMAN: This is your home.

(LAUGHTER)

JAMES FOX:

Their reunification is, in large
part, thanks to a series of
executive orders signed by President

Joe Biden on his first day in
office, one of which fulfilled
a signature campaign promise.

JOE BIDEN, President of the United
States: If I have the honor of
being president, I will end the

Muslim ban on day one. And we're
going to restore American leadership
around the world, starting by

putting our democratic values
and our diplomacy at the center
of our foreign policy again.

JAMES FOX: Biden also instructed his State
Department to resume visa processing,

particularly for those who had
already been interviewed by a
consular officer, like Amirkhani.

Still, even with many of the
Trump era travel bans out of
the way, some critics believe

that Biden has not moved quickly enough to
reverse all of his predecessor's policies.

Specifically, two travel ban
extensions which had halted all legal
immigration during the pandemic,

were not lifted by the president
until the end of February, five
weeks after his inauguration.

Now, for most visa applicants,
that five-week delay was just
another hurdle in what is already

a very long line of obstacles. But
for thousands of others who had
been granted temporary visas to

enter the U.S. in 2020 and 2021,
a delay like this is potentially
disastrous, because, while

many may have been approved to
come to the U.S. before those
additional bans were put in place,

the expiration date on their visas has
not changed, meaning their travel window,

which was originally about 10 months,
has been reduced to a matter of weeks.

What's more, a backlog in
applications, combined with the
pandemic, means some of those promised

visas are now beginning to
expire before they can even be
delivered by the State Department.

CURTIS MORRISON, Immigration
Attorney: What we're facing is,
all of their immigration paths end.

And when I say end, I mean end.

JAMES FOX: Curtis Morrison is an
immigration attorney who has been

suing the Biden administration to
lift the immigration bans extended

by President Trump in his
final weeks in office.

His lawsuits, four in total, are
still being argued in virtual
court on behalf of more than

2,000 plaintiffs who are running out
of time to get into the country before

their long-awaited visas expire, that is,
unless Congress or the courts intervene.

CURTIS MORRISON: So, these people
were extremely lucky to be selected

once. The idea that they could be selected
another time is a very remote possibility.

So, basically, they have been selected,
they have gone through the process,

they have done everything
right. They have made all these
arrangements. They went to hotels,

sometimes third countries, where
they were ready to enter the U.S.

as soon as the proclamation was
over. And then Trump extended
it, and Biden let it stay.

JAMES FOX: Ever since his first daughter
was born in 2019, Pouria Mojabi,

an Iranian-born tech entrepreneur in
Oakland, has been working with Curtis

Morrison to bring his parents
to the U.S. to help him and
his wife raise their children.

Even though he is an American
citizen, his parents' hopes of

watching their grandchildren grow have
been made impossible by the Muslim ban.

POURIA MOJABI, Tech Entrepreneur:
We just wanted to see my parents,

and we fought every single day.
I mean, nothing worked. This past

three, four years, I'm -- I did -- I mean,
I personally did a lot of protesting.

I am part of two, three different
lawsuits, spent a lot of money
for legal fees and lawyers.

Fought with every possible thing
we could. I mean, nothing worked.

JAMES FOX: Nor is anything expected
to work, at least soon, because,

as of today, U.S. consular
officers have not even scheduled
an interview with his parents,

an essential step towards
being issued a visa.

Responding to questions on how
they were addressing the backlog,

the State Department told the "NewsHour":
"We are working daily to find ways

to increase the number of immigrant
visa appointments, despite COVID-19."

Like many other separated families,
that's an assurance which,

according to the Mojabis, is not enough
to recover the time that has been lost.

MOSADEGH MOJABI, Grandfather: We wish
to be able to see them every day,

to see them when they are born,
to see them when they grow up.

And we have been deprived of this.

We can talk to them by the Internet, but
we are not sure that they know us at all,

if they love us at all.
And that is suffering.

JAMES FOX: Suffering, Curtis
Morrison believes, which is unlikely
to end with a new president.

CURTIS MORRISON: I do think that the
Biden administration will use the pandemic

as an excuse not to follow through
with promises, specifically
about immigration especially,

because, even if they -- he
does undo Trump's policy, it's
not going to solve the problems

that Trump created. That is going to
take some very creative solutions and

a big commitment, ambitious commitment,
and I don't think that the will is there.

JAMES FOX: Despite the
families who long for it to be.

For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm James Fox.