AEGiS-WashBlade: HHS takes first step in lifting HIV travel ban: Regulation expected to be finalized by year's end

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

HHS takes first step in lifting HIV travel ban: Regulation expected to be finalized by year's end

Washington Blade - July 10, 2009
Chris Johnson

The Obama administration has taken the first official step in lifting the regulatory ban preventing HIV-positive foreign nationals from entering the United States.

The Department of Health & Human Services last week issued a proposed regulation that would end the ban. The regulation was to be posted in the Federal Registry, triggering a 45-day period in which the department takes public comment. After another period of time, during which HHS will review the comments, a final regulation will be issued.

Steve Ralls, spokesperson for Immigration Equality, said this second period could take up to 60 days.

"We are hoping that the ban will be lifted à by the end of the year," Ralls said.

Ralls said the language in the regulation is exactly what advocates wanted in the repeal of the ban.

"The language is great and exactly what we had worked for and hoped we would see," he said.

Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement that the move means "we are one important step closer to finally ending this discriminatory ban once and for all."

"This regulation is unnecessary, ineffective and lacks any public health justification," he said. "We are confident that this sad chapter in our nation's treatment of people with HIV and AIDS will soon be closed."

Last year, former President George W. Bush signed into law, as part of the reauthorization of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, a provision removing the ban from federal statutes.

The law returned authority to HHS on whether HIV should stay on a list of communicable diseases barring foreign nationals from entering the United States.

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