White House to Announce End to HIV Travel Ban (WaPo)

[jefferson_dem]

White House to Announce End to HIV Travel Ban
By Garance Franke-Ruta

President Obama is expected to announce regulations formally ending the 22-year ban on travel and immigration by HIV-positive individuals, according to the group pushing for an end to the ban for the past decade.

The president is scheduled to sign the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009 at 11:50 Friday and is also expected today to reveal the new rules, which have been under development more more than a year.

The regulations are the final procedural step in ending the ban, and will be followed by the standard 60-day waiting period after being published in the Federal Register prior to implementation.

A ban on travel and immigration to the U.S. by individuals with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, was first established by the Reagan-era U.S. Public Health Service and then given further support when Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) added HIV to the travel-exclusion list in a move that was ultimately passed unanimously by the Senate in 1987.

A 1990-1991 effort to overturn the regulatory ban failed in the face of outcry and lobbying from conservative groups and bureaucratic turf disputes. The ban was upheld in 1993 when Congress added it to U.S. immigration laws.

The Senate finally voted to overturn the ban as part of approving legislation reauthorizing funding for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, in 2008, and President Bush signed it into law on July 30 of that year. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and then-Sen. Gordon H. Smith (R-Ore.) led the process in the Senate.

"This really proves that immigration laws that exclude families and stigmatize individuals are destined to fail," said Rachel B. Tiven, executive director of Immigration Equality, a group that has mobilized more than 20,000 comments in support of ending the ban.

"The climate has really changed," she said, attributing the end of the ban to a diminishment in "misinformation about HIV and AIDS."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/10/30/obama_to_announce_end_to_hiv_t.html?wprss=44

[TexasObserver]

1. It's about time.

Better late than never.

[jonnyblitz]

2. good. kudos to President Obama for this and thanks for posting !

:thumbsup:

[Whisp]

3. bless his heart and same for all the people who worked for this.

what a busy guy. ;)

[and-justice-for-all]

4. K&Rec

[Peacetrain]

5. K&R...good to read