US ban on visitors with HIV could end soon
By JIM ABRAMS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A two-decade ban on people with HIV visiting or
immigrating to the United States may end soon through a Senate bill
aimed at fighting AIDS and other diseases in Africa and other poor
areas of the world.
The U.S. is one of a dozen countries — including Sudan, Saudi Arabia,
Libya and Russia — that ban travel and immigration for HIV-positive
people.
Even China, said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., recently changed that
policy, deciding it was "time to move beyond an antiquated, knee-jerk
reaction" to people with HIV.
"There's no excuse for a law that stigmatizes a particular disease,"
Kerry said Tuesday at a speech to the Center for Strategic &
International Studies HIV/AIDS Task Force. Even people with avian flu
or the Ebola virus have an easier time than those with HIV when it
come to applying for visas, he said.
Kerry and Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., are trying to repeal the ban,
first implemented in 1987 and confirmed by Congress in 1993. The two
have attached their measure to legislation — which the Senate may pass
this week — that would provide $50 billion over the next five years to
fight AIDS and other diseases in Africa and other poor areas.
Foreign citizens, students and tourists can apply for a
difficult-to-obtain special waiver for short-term visits, but an
HIV-positive person has little chance of obtaining permanent
residency.
Under current law, HIV is the only medical condition explicitly listed
under immigration law. The Kerry-Smith provision would make HIV
equivalent to other communicable diseases where medical and public
health experts at the Health and Human Services Department — not
consular officials at U.S. embassies — determine eligibility for
admission.
Those with HIV seeking legal permanent residency would still have to
demonstrate they have the resources to live in this country and would
not become a "public charge."
The HIV ban was "adopted during a time of widespread fear and
ignorance about the HIV virus," said Allison Herwitt, legislative
director of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay and
lesbian civil rights group.
Among the consequences, experts on HIV and AIDS who are themselves
infected have been unable to attend conferences in the U.S. Students
and refugees in the country who may be at risk of infection have been
reluctant to seek testing or treatment.
"Health care professionals, researchers and other exceptionally
talented people have been blocked from the United States," some 160
health and AIDS groups said recently in a letter urging Congress to
end the current policy. "Since 1993, the International Conference on
AIDS has not been held on U.S. soil due to this policy."
Herwitt said some HIV-positive people seeking visas lie on their
applications and then don't bring their medications. "It's not only
wrongheaded and discriminatory, but can also cause people to not tell
the truth."
Both President George H.W. Bush and President Clinton sought to ease
the policy and in 2006 the current President Bush asked the Homeland
Security Department to streamline the waiver process. Congress so far
has not gone along.
There's still opposition.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., may offer an amendment to eliminate the
Kerry-Smith provision from the Senate bill. Sessions cited
Congressional Budget Office estimates that the new immigrants coming
in under the relaxed policy could cost the government more than $80
million over a 10-year period. "Most people just don't want to talk
about that."
Sessions said the Health and Human Services Department already has
considerable flexibility to grant entry visas.
The measure would offset the costs of new immigrants by raising the
price of applying for a visitor's visa by $1 for three years and then
$2 for the next five years.
The House version of the Africa AIDs bill does not have the travel and
immigration provision, but advocates said it will be included in the
final version of the bill that goes to the president.
Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., is sponsoring companion legislation in the House.
The Africa AIDS bill is S. 2731.
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