A planned family reunion in North Texas has been halted due to ongoing U.S. travel restrictions on Iranian nationals, preventing a local resident from seeing her brother and niece after 47 years.
Nika Reinecke, a longtime resident of North Texas, had arranged for her family members in Iran to visit after more than a decade of visa processing.
However, the trip was canceled when they were denied entry to the United States under current travel policies affecting Iranian citizens.
The denied entry follows years of anticipation. Reinecke’s brother and niece had waited approximately 15 years for a visa interview, a process that culminated in their recent application.
Despite meeting the documentation requirements, their application was affected by tightened restrictions currently applied to Iranian nationals.
The travel ban, first implemented under the Trump administration in 2017, initially applied to several Muslim-majority countries, including Iran.
The policy, intended as a national security measure, was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 following legal challenges.