US Immigration Policy on HIV: How it Impacts Immigrants Living With and at Risk of HIV/AIDS

February 1, 2008

A discussion on the effects of exclusionary US immigration policy on communities affected by HIV.

PRESENTERS:
* Megan McLemore, Human Rights Watch
* Nancy Ordover, GMHC and Lift the Bar Coalition



The national debate over immigration impacts the health of documented and undocumented people in our communities. Since the beginning of the epidemic, HIV positive immigrants have faced daunting challenges accessing care and treatment. And immigrants are at particular risk for HIV due to policies that force them to remain largely underground, since a diagnosis of HIV or AIDS complicates and jeopardizes one's immigration status.

The recently revised entry ban on HIV positive travelers adds disturbing new criteria while upholding many of the cruel provisions of the original ban - an embarrassment to the country, prohibiting the International AIDS Conference from ever being held in the US. For 20 years, HIV positive immigrants already in the country have been barred from achieving any recognized legal status except in extremely limited circumstances. They've also been barred from coming to the US to immigrate.

Megan McLemore will present findings from a recent report released by Human Rights Watch in November 2006, Chronic Indifference: HIV/AIDS Services for Immigrants Detained by the United States. This report documents the experiences of HIV-positive detainees in immigration custody whose HIV treatment was denied, delayed, or interrupted, resulting in serious risk and often damage to their health. The investigation included interviews with current and former detainees, DHS and detention facility officials, and an independent medical review of treatment provided. Detention facilities which housed immigrants with HIV infection failed to consistently deliver anti-retroviral medications, conduct necessary laboratory tests, ensure continuity of care, and ensure confidentiality or protection from discrimination - and no HIV prevention services were offered at all.

Nancy Ordover will discuss the US policy of barring entry into this country for People Living With HIV/AIDS. Since 1987, the United States has banned HIV+ noncitizens and nonresidents from entering the country and barred nonresidents already living in the U.S. from most types of legal status. On World AIDS Day 2006, President Bush directed the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security to offer a categorical waiver to HIV+ travelers, a move some misinterpreted as a significant change in the inadmissibility policy. Yet, the fundamental policy still stands - and the proposed Department of Homeland Security policy change unveiled in November 2006 arguably imposes even more barriers to admission to the US. A more productive development is House and Senate legislation that eliminates the statutory HIV bar to admissibility.