Why was there a travel and immigration ban for HIV-positive people?
The Immigration and Nationality Act provides that individuals who are determined to have a communicable disease of public health significance are inadmissible to the United States and are prohibited from receiving visas to visit the United States without a waiver. Congress removed this statutory language specifically requiring that HIV be considered a “communicable disease of public health significance,” a list that is established by regulations published by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through a provision in the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008, which the President signed on July 30, 2008.
