Obama Administration Lifts HIV Ban - Immigration will no longer test for HIV Infection
Since 1987, HIV Infection has been on the list of banned “communicable diseases of public significance.” If a foreign national tested HIV positive, he or she was declared inadmissible and could not get into the United States or obtain residency in the USA without a discretionary Waiver of Inadmissibility.
In the early 1990’s, the Clinton Administration attempted to remove HIV from the list, only to have Congress specifically add HIV as its own special ground of inadmissibility. Last summer, in legislation signed by President George W. Bush, Congress repealed the statutory HIV ground of inadmissibility. In October 2009, the Obama Administration removed HIV from its list of “communicable diseases of public significance.” Our Immigration offices and consulates will no longer test for HIV infection.
In announcing this, President Obama said, “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. Now, 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 from HIV from entering our own country. If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it.”
