SURVIVING FAT BOY:

Over the last four years, more than 41,000 visa requests have been denied due to the ban. The policy also prevented life-saving surgeries for individuals from banned countries, while also limiting America's own health care workforce amid a pandemic.

Still, the rollback marks "an unprecedented victory for Muslims and allies, who flocked to airports to protest this ban and never stopped fighting and organizing to bring it to an end," said Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates. 

The order also instructs the State Department to restart visa processing for these countries and calls for a review of the Trump administration's "extreme vetting" practices and a plan to "restore fairness and remedy the harms caused by the ban."

The policy, the culmination of Trump's 2015 campaign call for a "total and complete shutdown" of Muslims' entry, initially banned travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. But amid legal challenges, the order went through several iterations before a narrower version was upheld by the Supreme Court. The court's 2018 ruling required that applicants apply for waivers in a process some lawmakers and immigration rights advocates later described as a "sham." 

Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations-San Francisco Bay Area, said Biden's move would "correct the course" of disrupted lives.

"Tens of thousands of impacted individuals will now have the chance to be with their families during cherished and challenging times," she said. "While we know our work is far from over, today we celebrate the heroic efforts undertaken by so many over the last several years in our effort to repeal the Muslim and African Bans."

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