WASHINGTON, July 16, 2008
U.S. May Lift Ban On Visitors With HIV
Senate Bill Would Repeal Restriction Against Travelers And Immigrants
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(AP / CBS)
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Interactive AIDS: The Modern Pandemic A history of AIDS, U.S. statistics, health facts and a look at how the epidemic has spread.
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 comes 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.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 27 CommentsYeah because if someone gets SICK here and goes to the emergency room, they HAVE to trat them
A foreigner carrying a FATAL disease that other people can contract is "stigmatizing" them??? I guess if they had Smallpox in the 50''s and being kept in quaranteen would be a violation of civil rights today eh?
"Other countries welcome your disease ridden citizens into their country, don''''t they? What about what''''s his face, the guy with TB?" Posted by erasmus81 at 01:30 PM : Jul 16, 2008
I wasn''t saying it should be allowed, I was just saying....
Other countries welcome your disease ridden citizens into their country, don''t they? What about what''s his face, the guy with TB?
See, now that is why Canada is still pretty "pure".:)
Ignorance leads to fear leads to hate. Said many times in many ways. I didn''''t make it up.
Posted by Caeric
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Ignorance also allowed a disease to rampantly spread.
Ignorance can also lead to apathy, which is why it still gets spread.
/abjectsarcasm
Biology 101 -- something new happens, quarantine and profile for the sake of the majority.
Absolutely...heck, all the illegal immigrants are already having anchor babies on our system. AIDS is expensive to treat...what the heck...our welfare system can handle it.
Or would I rather help someone with AIDS than someone who''s sucking off the system and having 10 babies and collecting welfare. Perhaps the AIDS-infected people can infect the welfare suckers, and the whole problem is fixed.
You seem to be confusing survival instinct with learned behaviors. There is a distinct difference.
Similarly, you mistake a doctor using the proper precautions as fear. If the doctor feared, he (or she) wouldn''t be able to help anyone who is sick. There is no fear in his (or her) action, only proper precautionary practice. In fact, the use of such precautions is most likely based in 1) intelligence and 2) education. Fear doesn''t enter the picture.
-DaVicar2
I never told you who to hate or fear. I only said that America would be better off without all the haters. Take it as you will.
-DaVicar2
Odd, how I used the word hatemonger, and you admit that you hate, then you get upset that you''ve been called a hatemonger.... even though I never specifically referred to you. Something about shoes and fitting here...
Ignorance leads to fear leads to hate. Said many times in many ways. I didn''t make it up.
"Terrorists" who want to die "for Allah" will intentionally infect themselves;
They''''ll come to America and spread it around, accomplishing slowly what they could not accomplish by crashing airplanes on 9/11.
Since we don''''t have universal health care, too many of us will die . . . . . .
Posted by mswolfestock at 11:00 AM : Jul 16, 2008
I just had a visual of tour buses filled with jihadists going to San Francisco & pulling up in front of a bath house & hundreds of terrorists piling into a big tub cat calling any guy how walks by with: "Heeelloooo Sailor! Looking for a good time??!!"
"Terrorists" who want to die "for Allah" will intentionally infect themselves;
They''ll come to America and spread it around, accomplishing slowly what they could not accomplish by crashing airplanes on 9/11.
Since we don''t have universal health care, too many of us will die . . . . . .
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See all 27 Comments