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 Senate Approves Repeal of HIV Travel and Immigration Ban
In a decision highly praised by gay and lesbian advocacy groups, the U.S. Senate voted this week to repeal a ban on HIV positive visitors and immigrants. The ban, which has been in place for over 20 years and was officially made law in 1993, has barred visitors and immigrants with HIV from traveling to the United States unless they were granted special waivers.
The ban originated in 1987, and explicitly codified by Congress in 1993, despite efforts in the public health community to remove the ban when Congress reformed U.S. immigration law in the early 1990s. While immigration law currently excludes foreigners with any “communicable disease of public health significance” from entering the U.S., only HIV is explicitly named in the statute, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
The amendment to repeal the HIV travel ban was included in a larger bill to provide increased funding to fight HIV/AIDS worldwide. The bill passed the Senate on Wednesday with strong support from both Democrats and Republicans in an 80 to 16 vote. Senator John Kerry and Republican Gordon Smith of Oregon co-sponsored the repeal of the travel ban.
In a press statement, the Human Rights Campaign praised the U.S. Senate for approving the repeal of the discriminatory law barring HIV positive visitors and immigrants from entering the country. The Human Rights Campaign has worked closely with the offices of Sens. John Kerry and Gordon Smith, as well as Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), the sponsor of an effort to repeal the ban in the House of Representatives.
“We applaud the Senate for rejecting this unjust and sweeping policy that deems HIV-positive individuals inadmissible to the United States,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “We call on the leaders of the House and Senate to retain the Kerry-Smith provision in conference and ensure it is included in the final legislation sent to the President’s desk.”
“The HIV ban is ineffective, unnecessary, and simply bad public health policy,” said Rachel B. Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality. “It is especially harmful to gay and lesbian families, who do not benefit from the waiver available to opposite-sex couples. The Senate’s change is welcome, and long overdue.”
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