Travel, Immigration Ban: How You Can Help

Last week the U. S. Government, overruling the virtually unanimous recommendation of medical and public-health experts throughout the world, continued to ban both immigration and travel by persons with HIV into the United States. This action followed receipt of 35,000 letters and postcards, mostly generated by right-wing religious broadcasters and mailing houses, opposed to removing the ban. Planning for the Eighth International Conference on AIDS, scheduled for Boston in May 1992, is already being disrupted; it is possible that this Conference will never occur.

Fortunately, the period for public comment on this issue has been extended for 60 days -- until August 2. After that time, the decision on the travel and immigration ban may be reconsidered. It is vitally important that the AIDS community organize to send tens of thousands of letters and postcards supporting the removal of HIV from the list of contagious diseases which exclude people from entry to the United States. (The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services have recommended that only active tuberculosis be included on that list, but because of the right- wing campaign against the proposal, they have been overruled.)

Beyond this immediate issue, we must organize to make sure that what has happened now never happens again. Therefore, we are calling on the AIDS community to begin building permanent letter-writing groups, led by individuals who keep in touch with national organizations and, when a call goes out, meet with their friends in brunches, parties, or other social groups, bring all the information, supplies, and other support needed, and help people write their own letters to the necessary politicians and officials. People have been reluctant to write because they fear they do not know enough, or because the activity is solitary and impersonal; ongoing support groups will overcome both problems.

Pages two and three of this issue contain our emergency call to action, typeset on separate pages for convenient photocopying and distribution. This self-contained action kit tells how to start ongoing groups, and how to use them now to address the travel/immigration issue. Note that anyone who is willing to speak publicly can help in this way; you do not need to live in a city with existing organizations in order to start. The important thing now is to get letters to the Centers for Disease Control before the August 2 deadline.

After the action kit, a longer background article explains what has happened so far in this case. Even after five years of covering U. S. policy on AIDS, we find it unbelievable how badly this issue has been handled. Much of the information we report here has not been widely available, even among AIDS organizations.