December 17, 2007
John Kerry Does Something!

People are always quite surprised to find out that the U.S. of A is one of the very few nations that do not allow HIV positive people to ENTER the country. Not immigrate or obtain visas, but even visit for an hour.

Well, John Kerry and Oregon, gasp, Republican, Gordon Smith want to help change that, says Queerty after the jump.

Senator John Kerry proved himself useful last week. The Democrat joined forces with Oregonian Republican Gordon Smith to introduce legislation easing America’s restrictions on HIV positive travelers.

Those restrictions include nearly blanket bans on infected foreigners.

Kerry and Smith released a joint statement, saying:

The United States has one of the harshest restrictions in the world on HIV-positive immigrants.

It’s incredible that the federal government still tolerates a ban that not only restricts AIDS experts with the disease but also refugees who are seeking asylum in our country. My legislation will end this draconian law. The attempts to fix this law through a complex waiver system, while admirable, still don’t do anything to rectify the discriminatory underlying problem. That is why I have introduced this legislation to permanently strike this unfair provision from the books.

Kerry and Smith’s plan would give broader power to the Department of Health and Human Services, which originally managed such matters. Congress took control in 1993 with the Immigration and Nationality Act.

So it’s really not that monumental, but it’s better than nothing.

Posted by peter to Politics at 09:00AM on Dec 17, 2007
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