Immigration Equality: “Mixed Signals and Missed Opportunities Coming from the Bush Administration”
Contact: Zaheer Mustafa, Immigration Equality Communications Coordinator
office: 212.714.2904 /cell: 516.448.9559 email: Zmustafa@immigrationequality.org
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New York, NY, October 7, 2008 -

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has revised the list of diseases that bar people from entering the United States, but HIV remains on the list despite a recent action by Congress to remove it.

The new rule was issued on Monday, the same day that Immigration Equality received a letter from HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt stating that the Centers for Disease Control, a department of HHS, “is actively working to amend the regulation to remove HIV from the list.” The letter was a response to an appeal led by Immigration Equality and signed by 185 health, legal, and civil rights organizations.

"HHS is missing an opportunity to fulfill the will of Congress and end counterproductive myths about HIV transmission,” said Immigration Equality legal director Victoria Neilson. "There is no need to wait – HHS should end the HIV entry ban now.”

Congress repealed its statutory HIV entry ban as part of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), an act signed into law by President Bush in July. A regulatory rule change must originate from HHS to complete the lifting of the ban.

Instead, the new regulation adds highly contagious diseases like cholera, yellow fever, and SARS to the list without removing HIV. The rule change went into effect on an interim basis yesterday and is open to a public comment period until December 5.

HHS’s failure to act follows the release last week of changed regulations for waivers for HIV-positive tourists visiting the U.S. The President first announced these changes nearly two years ago, and although the Department of Homeland Security calls the process “streamlined,” Immigration Equality has long expressed concern that they will further restrict business and tourism by people living with HIV.

“We’re troubled by the mixed signals and missed opportunities coming from the Bush Administration,” said Rachel B. Tiven, Immigration Equality’s executive director. “HHS has clearly stated that it intends to end the pointless exclusion of people with HIV, yet today’s rule change fails to do so. Meanwhile, Homeland Security has taken a set of pending regulations down from the shelf just as they are about to become obsolete.”

Immigration Equality has been a longtime national leader in the fight to lift the HIV ban. As the only national organization dedicated to advancing equal immigration rights for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive community, Immigration Equality has worked for years in a concerted effort to lift the ban that included advocacy, public education, and legal assistance.

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