Supporters of Shaima Swileh hold up signs as they await her arrival at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2018. Swileh is the Yemeni mother who won her fight for a waiver from the Trump administration's travel ban that would allow her to go to California to see her dying 2-year-old son. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
President Donald Trump administration's extended ban on some travelers entering the United States took effect this Friday.
It applies to people looking for immigrant visas to travel to the U.S. from Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan as well as African states Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania is taking effect.
The executive order applies to immigrant visas that can give travelers a path to permanent U.S residency, not temporary non-immigrant visas.
Trump said he's protecting the U.S. from terrorists the countries listed don't meet security standards.
But at Washington's Dulles International Airport, taxi driver Zak Ahmed had a different take.
"People are desperate - they can’t come to America," Ahmed, who left his native Sudan to settle in the U.S. nearly ten years ago, told CGTN.
"The immigration is more strict. A lot of people want to visit come to visit families and [Trump] is making it very difficult."
And other opponents of this travel ban said it’s no coincidence these are Muslim majority and African countries - with a sense of deja vu.
When Trump was inaugurated just over three years ago, he pledged: "We will reinforce old alliances and forge new ones and united the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth."
Days later he issued the first executive order travel ban covering Chad, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Venezuela and Yemen.
Worldwide protests followed over claims Muslims were the deliberate target.
Campaign group Muslim Advocates estimates this latest move more than doubles the number of Muslims banned from the U.S to more than 320 million.