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Senate Adds Provision To Repeal HIV Travel, Immigration Ban To Bush AIDS Bill - by 365Gay.com Newscenter Staff

(Washington) The Senate has attached legislation that would repeal a travel and immigration ban on people with HIV to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR.

The ban was originally enacted in 1987, and explicitly restated in 1993, despite efforts in the public health community to remove the ban when Congress reformed U.S. immigration law in the early 1990s.
The travel and immigration ban prohibits HIV positive foreign nationals, students, and tourists from entering the U.S. unless they obtain a special waiver that only allows for short term travel. Current policy also prevents the vast majority of individuals with HIV from obtaining legal permanent residency.

While immigration law currently excludes immigrants with any "communicable disease of public health significance" from entering the U.S., only HIV is explicitly named in the statute. For all other illnesses, the Secretary of Health and Human Services retains the ability, with the medical expertise of his department, to determine which illnesses truly pose a risk to public health.

Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Oregon) introduced legislation - the HIV Non-Discrimination in Travel and Immigration Act - in December 2007 to repeal the ban. Representative Barbara Lee introduced the legislation in August 2007 in the House of Representatives.
Monday the bill was attached to PEPFAR. It is expected to be considered by the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations this week.

"The inclusion of this reform in PEPFAR means that we are one step closer to ending a counterproductive travel ban stigmatizing HIV positive doctors and AIDS experts," Kerry said in a statement.
"This law was written when little was known about the disease and destructive stigmas often won the day. With new knowledge about the disease, we must make it clear that this discriminatory, draconian law will no longer be tolerated."

Sen. Smith said: "The United States is a country founded on the principles of acceptance and freedom and should not forbid individuals with HIV - including AIDS experts - from entering the United States. It’s time to get rid of this thoroughly outdated law."

Physicians for Human Rights and the Human Rights Campaign both hailed the attachment of the Kerry-Smith bill to PEPFAR.
""We welcome language in the PEPFAR Reauthorization bill that would lift the ban on travel to the US for people with HIV," said John Bradshaw of the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Physicians for Human Rights.

"More than 700 doctors, nurses, and public health experts recently wrote the government asking them to overturn this ban. It clearly violates the human rights of people with HIV and has stigmatized them for 15 years. It's time for the U.S. to treat visitors living with HIV with dignity, as other countries do. There have never been public health grounds for denying people living with AIDS admission to the United States, and there are none now," said Bradshaw, from Washington.

"The time is long overdue to repeal this unjust and sweeping policy that deems HIV positive individuals inadmissible to the United States,” said HRC President Joe Solmonese. "This law emerged out of fear and stigma, and there remains no public health rationale for treating HIV more harshly than other communicable diseases. We salute the leadership of Senators Kerry and Smith and urge Congress to end this draconian policy."

The administration has acknowledged there are problems with the current system but its proposals still present roadblocks.

There are 12 proposed requirements of visitors and immigrants to this country who have HIV. They would require disclosure of HIV status to consular officials in the individual’s home country; certification that the individual has in their possession all medication necessary for the duration of their stay in the U.S.; certification that no symptoms are being exhibited; and a commitment to avoid all high risk behavior while in the U.S.
In addition it is left to the discretion of the consular officers who often do not have the medical knowledge to make these decisions. No guidelines are given on how to make these determinations and there is no appeal process. If an HIV positive individual is given asylum in the United States, that person is not allowed to obtain a green card or become a U.S. citizen – even if their asylum was given because of their HIV status.

The United States is one of only 13 countries that have an HIV travel ban

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