A New Year's Present, Long Overdue
Finally, more than a year after Congress voted to repeal the HIV travel and immigration ban, the policy barring HIV-positive immigrants from entering the U.S. is finally coming to an end. The regulations were published Monday in the Federal Register, which will be followed by the standard 60-day waiting period prior to the new rule taking effect.
President Obama announced the elimination of the ban during last week's signing of the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act of 2009. Following are the President's comments regarding the HIV travel ban. From the White House blog:
"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.
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. If we want to be the global leader in combating HIV/AIDS, we need to act like it.
And that's why, on Monday my administration will publish a final rule that eliminates the travel ban effective just after the New Year.
Congress and President Bush began this process last year, and they ought to be commended for it. We are finishing the job. It's a step that will encourage people to get tested and get treatment, it's a step that will keep families together, and it's a step that will save lives."
Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Comments
This is an open invitation to anyone with AIDS to come to the US and get treated for a very expensive disease for free.
You open borders advocates seem to think we as a country have endless amounts of money. Do you know that our national debt ($12 trillion) is almost at the same level as our national GDP ($13 trillion)? And that this nationl total does not include the aggregated trillions more in debt that is owed by state governments and municipal governments (like most of the large cities in California, which are hundreds of millions of dollars in debt)? What do you think will happen when our collective debt exceeds our collective income? What do you think will happen when China finally decides to stop lending us money to cover our debt?