Tell the Administration to Remove Regulations Barring HIV-Positive Visitors and Immigrants

While the repeal of the law barring HIV-positive visitors and immigrants is a tremendous victory, there is still one more barrier that must be removed. U.S. immigration laws require the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to maintain a list of diseases that render people unable to enter the United States. HIV remains on that list.

Ask Secretary Leavitt to remove the remaining barriers to HIV-positive visitors and immigrants by taking HIV off the list.

Subject:

Dear [ Decision Maker ],

I'm writing to urge you to remove HIV from the list of diseases that bar people from entering the United States. On Wednesday, President Bush signed into law a measure that returns authority to your office to determine whether or not HIV should be a "communicable disease of public health significance" under HHS regulations. I ask that you follow the lead of Congress and the President by eliminating this archaic and unjustifiable policy, which bars nearly every foreign national with HIV from entering the United States for any purpose.

(Edit Letter Below)

This discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS is inexcusable, and the policy has serious consequences. It separates families, denies American businesses access to talented workers, and bars students and tourists from accessing opportunities and supporting our economy. And it is just downright wrong.

This policy has no medical or public health rationale.  In 1991, then-Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan, M.D. supported removing HIV from this list and told the New York Times that doing so would "bring us in line with the best medical thinking, here and abroad."  Seventeen years later, the best medical thinking continues to support ending this discriminatory policy.  Major medical and public health groups, including the American Medical Association, the World Health Organization and the American Public Health Association, oppose this barrier for HIV-positive visitors and immigrants.

I urge you follow the example of Congress and the President, as well as the long-standing opinion of the medical community, and finally end this discriminatory policy.

Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your address]

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Secretary Michael Leavitt

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