We reported to you not long ago that Congress had approved a measure, and I gather the President has signed it, to lift the ban on HIV-positive immigrants to the US. The ban had been in place since the 1980’s.
Now comes a group called “Immigration Equality” that describes itself as follows:
Immigration Equality is a national organization fighting for equality under U.S. immigration law for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and HIV-positive individuals. Founded in 1994 as the Lesbian and Gay Immigration Rights Task Force, we have grown to a membership of 10,000 people in cities all over the country. We are run by a Board of Directors and have full-time staff in our National Headquarters in New York. Immigration Equality is funded by donations from our members as well as generous support from private foundations.
Immigration Equality helps Gays and Lesbians seek asylum in the US. Here is a portion of their website dealing with asylum. I guess their work must be stepped up in recent times as the internet is full of photos of gay men being hanged in Islamic countries like Iran.
Anyway here is what they are telling their members what the next step is to make sure the ban removal is fully implemented.
When the President signs the Pepfar bill (which could be as early as this Wednesday) the statutory HIV ban will be removed. That is, the HIV ban will no longer be written into the Immigration and Nationality Act which is extraordinarily good news. This is just the first step though, in a two step process. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has the authority to decide which illnesses constitute “communicable diseases of public health significance.” Currently, HIV is on this list, meaning that the HIV ban will not immediately be lifted with the passage of Pepfar. So, what happens next?.
We must now set our sights on HHS. and urge them to strike HIV from its list. Immigration Equality is working in coalition with other organizations now to determine the best way to approach HHS. In order for the ban to be fully repealed, HHS will have to issue proposed regulations, allow for public comments, and then issue final regulations. This could be a lengthy (and contentious) process.
Refugees have already been admitted to the US with HIV/AIDS, a reader had previously told us how that has come about here.
By the way, did I mention that the taxpayer will be paying for the treatment of these new immigrants, as we already pay for refugees HIV medicine.