Mohammed Salem Ali, a 64-year-old Muslim refugee from Somalia, has missed out on years with his family. He wasnt there for the birth of his three grandchildren, and, because of President Donald Trump s travel ban, he was kept from joining his family in the United States. If he isnt approved for a visa soon, he could miss his 22-year-old daughters college graduation in the spring.

The Salem family hopes that will change under President-elect Joe Biden .

Biden, who will take office in January, has vowed to end Trumps ban on entrants from certain countries, most of them majority Muslim, including Somalia. The so-called Muslim ban has kept thousands of families apart, simply based on nationality, in a not-so-subtle twist on Trumps 2015 campaign promise to ban all Muslims from entering the United States.

And those families, like the Salems, are anxiously watching to see what Biden and his administration do next.

The Muslim and African immigrant community will hold them accountable to his pledge. They want to make sure that this is a Day 1 action and the Biden administration repeals all iterations of the ban, including the Muslim ban and African ban, the refugee ban and asylum ban, said Subha Varadarajan, the legal and outreach fellow for the No Muslim Ban Ever Campaign, a coalition of civil rights organizations dedicated to overturning the travel and immigration restrictions.