Beginning in the new year, travelers who have HIV/AIDS will no longer be prevented from entering the United States.
The Obama administration on Monday issued the final regulation to lift the longstanding HIV-travel ban, originally enacted more than 20 years ago.
The Department of Health and Human Services published the proposed regulation in the Federal Register in July and allowed for a public-comment period before the final regulation was announced.
HHS initially included HIV on its list of communicable diseases that would prevent entry into the country, along with leprosy and active tuberculosis, in 1987. Six years later, Congress incorporated the HIV-travel ban into the Immigration and Nationality Act; HIV was the only disease explicitly named in this law that would bar travelers from coming into the country.
Congress lifted the ban from the INA in 2008, but the full reversal could not be finalized until HHS followed suit.
“Twenty-two years ago, in a decision rooted in fear rather than fact, the United States instituted a travel ban on entry into the country for people living with HIV/AIDS,” Obama said last week in announcing the new HHS regulation. “We talk about reducing the stigma of this disease, yet we’ve treated a visitor living with it as a threat. We lead the world when it comes to helping stem the AIDS pandemic, yet we are one of only a dozen countries that still bar people with HIV from entering our own country.”
Kevin Burns, executive director of ActionAIDS, hailed the action.
“I think it’s a very encouraging move,” he said. “After 20 years of being so restrictive and discriminatory, I’m glad to see the ban being lifted. Obama made a comment that we needed to start acting like leaders, and I think he’s right on target. This is a step in the right direction.”
In addition, Obama signed the fourth reauthorization of the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, extending the federal HIV/AIDS funding program for the next four years.
The program, first instituted in 1990, serves more than half a million people each year through funding provided to states, as well as directly to service organizations, for medications, treatment and other support services for low-income people with the disease.
The legislation authorizes a 5-percent increase for each part of the program each year — beginning at a total of $2.55 billion in fiscal year 2010 and rising to $2.95 billion by fiscal year 2013 — and provides expanded support and resources to the CARE Act’s Minority AIDS Initiative.
The Senate approved the extension legislation Oct. 19, and the House did so two days later. Obama finalized the reauthorization with his signature Oct. 30.
“Over the past 19 years, this legislation has evolved from an emergency response into a comprehensive national program for the care and support of Americans living with HIV/AIDS,” the president said at the signing. “It helps communities that are most severely affected by this epidemic and often least served by our healthcare system, including minority communities, the LGBT community, rural communities and the homeless. It’s often the only option for the uninsured and the underinsured. And it provides lifesaving medical services to more than half a million Americans every year, in every corner of the country.”
Despite the advances made possible by the Ryan White Act, Obama noted, there are still more than one million people living with HIV/AIDS in the country, and more than 56,000 new infections every year.
“This is a battle that’s far from over, and it’s a battle that all of us need to do our part to join,” he said. “Tackling this epidemic will take far more aggressive approaches than we’ve seen in the past — not only from our federal government, but also state and local governments, from local community organizations and from places of worship. But it will also take an effort to end the stigma that has stopped people from getting tested, that has stopped from them facing their own illness and that has sped the spread of this disease for far too long.”
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].