Bay Windows - March 7, 2008
Laura Kiritsy, Editor-in-chief

Below is the full text of the press release issued this afternoon by Kerry's office:

Kerry, Smith Anti-Discrimination Provision Included in PEPFAR

WASHINGTON D.C. - Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) applauded the inclusion of language to lift the travel ban on people with HIV in the PEPFAR package today. Kerry and Smith last year introduced legislation that would repeal the outdated, misguided provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which bars HIV positive individuals from entering the United States, including HIV positive doctors and experts as well as refugees seeking asylum. Cambridge, MA-based Physicians for Human Rights has enthusiastically endorsed the bill, as well as the Human Rights Campaign.

"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," said Kerry. "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."

"The time is long overdue to repeal this unjust and sweeping policy that deems HIV positive individuals inadmissible to the United States," said Human Rights Campaign 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."

John Bradshaw, JD, Washington Director of Physicians for Human Rights said, "We welcome language in the PEPFAR Reauthorization bill that would lift the ban on travel to the US for people with HIV. 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."

Since 1993, the INA has designated HIV as grounds for inadmissibility to the U.S. A cumbersome waiver option is available to those wishing to enter this country, but the process is incredibly restrictive. These obstacles result in an almost wholesale rejection of any HIV positive individual from the United States, no matter their reason for entry. Kerry's bill would strike the HIV restrictions from the INA - making HIV on par with all other infections diseases when being considered for admissibility.

President Bush acknowledged that the waiver system was a problem on World AIDS Day in 2006 when he asked the Department of Homeland Security to streamline the process. However, the proposed regulations are arguably more restrictive and intrusive.

There are 12 proposed requirements of visitors and immigrants to this country that have HIV. The most egregious hurdles include: 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.

What's more, it is all left to the discretion of the consular officers who likely 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 whatsoever. If an HIV positive individual is given asylum in the United States, they are not allowed to obtain a green card or become a U.S. citizen - even if their asylum was given because of their HIV status.

Not only do these proposed requirements and the underlying law discriminate and infringe on people's civil rights, they also serve to isolate individuals with HIV and further stigmatize the disease.

Because of this law, international conferences on HIV/AIDS have been closed to the United States - hampering our country's ability to take a leadership role in the global fight against HIV/AIDS. The United States is one of only 13 countries that have an HIV travel ban, among countries like China, Iraq, Libya, and Sudan.

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