GMHC CALLS HIV NONDISCRIMINATION IN TRAVEL AND IMMIGRATION ACT AN “IMPORTANT STEP FORWARD”

Still a long road ahead to overturning HIV ban

New York, NY—On August 2, Representative Barbara Lee introduced the “HIV Nondiscrimination in Travel and Immigration Act.” Its passage would be an important step toward overturning the 20-year policy that has banned HIV-positive non-citizens from entering the United States and barred those already living here from attaining most types of legal status. Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) supports Rep. Lee’s bill, but cautions that the legislation would neither lift the HIV ban nor provide relief to HIV+ non-green card holding residents or travelers.

“For 20 years, this policy has menaced every HIV-positive immigrant and traveler to the U.S.,” said Nancy Ordover, Ph.D., assistant director for research and federal affairs at GMHC. “It has left people with HIV and AIDS homeless, sick, hungry, and often without a country. In some instances, it has left them for dead.”

When the ban first went into effect in 1987, it was an administrative policy under the purview of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Nearly 200 health organizations, including the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization, and the American Public Health Association, expressed opposition to the ban, and in 1991 HHS reversed its position and tried to overturn the policy. Congress stepped in and in 1993 made the ban statutory, enshrining it in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).Representative Lee’s bill would amend the INA, striking the provision that renders people with HIV inadmissible to the U.S., and returning authority for that determination to HHS. The bill would mandate an HHS review of all policies regarding the continued listing of HIV/AIDS as grounds for inadmissibility. HHS would then be required to report its findings to Congress and to make them available to the public.

While the bill falls far short of overturning the discriminatory policy, it would bring the INA in line with the longstanding and widespread recognition that there is no public health justification for the bar whatsoever. The bill also makes reference to the United Nations International Guidelines on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, which state that restricting movement or choice of residence based on HIV status is discriminatory and unjustifiable on public health grounds.

“The HIV ban was born of fear, ignorance, and intolerance. It is critical that it be stricken from the Immigration and Nationality Act,” Dr. Ordover stated. “That said, we have a long road ahead of us. Even if Representative Lee’s legislation is successful, we’ll need Congress to stay with this issue over the long haul. That means not stopping until this policy—be it legislative or administrative—is brought down once and for all.”