Help Reverse the US Government's Discriminatory HIV Travel Ban

The following text is from a letter at the site of Change.org advocating for the lift of the US travel ban on HIV infected individuals. I hope you will join me in writing to your US Senator to ask them why HIV has been singled out for a travel ban and to urge them to vote to end this disgraceful and discriminatory restriction. If you agree that this ban should be lifted, please visit the site linked above and fill in the required information to send a letter to your US Senator.

The United States is one of only 12 nations in the world to automatically ban HIV-positive visitors from entering the country. Our peers: Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Sudan, Qatar, Brunei, Oman, Moldova, Russia, Armenia, and South Korea.

HIV is the only medical condition that permanently precludes admission. Not even leprosy and tuberculosis are grounds for exclusion. Only a record of terrorism, tax evasion, money laundering or child smuggling has the same effect.

This law, which is in violation of UN standards, has absolutely no medical rationale or basis in health policy. It is a discriminatory holdover from the AIDS panic two decades ago. Thousands of immigrants to this country live in constant fear of unjust deportation. Forcing them underground, where they cannot get treated openly for fear of discovery, only worsens the health risk and cost to society.

Now we finally have a chance to take this absurd phobia off the books. The Senate version of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) reauthorization bill includes language that removes the statutory ban. There is bipartisan support but little political will. Urge your senators to demonstrate some leadership and bring this matter to a vote. Too many people have been denied the American dream for too long.

Categories: US immigration HIV AIDS HIV/AIDS travel+ban discriminiation politics