The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services took one of the final steps in lifting the longstanding ban restricting those with HIV from entering the country last week.
HHS posted a proposal in the Federal Register, a journal of all federal government actions, July 2 indicating the agency’s intention to overturn the ban. The proposal will be open for public comment for 45 days, and then HHS will have up to another 60 days to review the comments before issuing a final regulation.
“We are one important step closer to finally ending this discriminatory ban once and for all,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “This regulation is unnecessary, ineffective and lacks any public health justification. We are confident that this sad chapter in our nation’s treatment of people with HIV and AIDS will soon be closed.”
HIV was included in 1987 by HHS on its list of communicable diseases, along with leprosy and active tuberculosis, that would prevent entry into the country. Congress then incorporated the HIV travel ban into the 1993 Immigration and Nationality Act; although the INA prohibits individuals with “communicable diseases” from entering the country, HIV was the only disease explicitly named in the law.
Congress approved the removal of HIV from INA last summer when it passed the reauthorization of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, but stipulated that the decision to remove HIV from HHS’ list of communicable diseases lies with that agency.
In last week’s proposal, the agency stated that the disease is not spread easily enough to warrant the banning of positive individuals from the country.
“While HIV is a serious health condition, it does not represent a communicable disease that is a significant threat for introduction, transmission and spread to the U.S. population through casual contact,” the proposal states.
Victoria Neilson, legal director for Immigration Equality, which works to see equal rights for LGBT and HIV/AIDS communities in U.S. immigration policies, called the proposed regulations “the penultimate step toward ending the HIV ban once and for all.”
“Our country is making great progress toward implementing a fair and sensible HIV immigration policy,” Neilson said. “Ending the HIV travel and immigration ban removes a federally sanctioned stigma and sends a strong, clear message that the United States is working to end discrimination against people living with HIV.”
HHS had originally submitted the proposed regulation June 30 but then retracted it, posting a notice that the agency “inadvertently submitted an incomplete version” of the proposal.
The most recent notice, which tops out at 70 pages compared with the original that ran 82 pages, estimated that 676 additional HIV infections could arise from the lifting of the ban over a five-year period. The original proposal, however, was projected based on a 20-year scale and included both immigrants and Americans, setting the number of infections at 37,780.
Neither HHS nor the Centers for Disease Control, which collaborated on the regulation, responded to calls for comment on the reasoning for the changes.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].