PUBLIC SUBMISSION | As of: February 18, 2009 Tracking No. 8037150a Comments Due: December 06, 2007 |
Docket: USCBP-2007-0084
Issuance of a Visa and Authorization for Temporary Admission into the United States for Certain Nonimmigrant Aliens Afflicted with HIV Infection
Comment On: USCBP-2007-0084-0001
Issuance of a Visa and Authorization for Temporary Admission Into the United States for Certain Nonimmigrant Aliens Infected With HIV
Document: USCBP-2007-0084-0651
Comment Submitted by Seth Berkley, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
December 6, 2007
Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
Bureau of Customs and Border Protection
Border Security Regulations Branch
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW (Mint Annex)
Washington, DC 20229
VIA EMAIL
To: regulations.gov
To the DHS, Bureau of Border and Customs Protection:
The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) submits the following comments
opposing the Department of Homeland Security?s (DHS) proposed rule for HIV-positive
nonimmigrant temporary travelers to the United States, and requests that the DHS
withdraw the HIV Waiver Application Proposal cited above. This proposal contains new
and discriminatory criteria, some of which is more stringent than current DHS policy,
and may actually act as a disincentive for HIV-positive travelers to volunteer information
about their status. Currently, HIV positive travelers entering the U.S. are required to
declare themselves infected with the virus, but they are not required to ?establish that
he or she is aware of, understands, and has been counseled on the nature and severity
of his or her medical condition.? Nor are they required to be counseled on the
communicability of HIV or the implications of donating blood or to waive the right to
apply for an extension of his or her nonimmigrant stay.
The HIV Waiver Application Proposal would be detrimental to the global, scientific effort
to combat AIDS, including to IAVI?s mission, which is to develop a vaccine against
AIDS. The Proposal would unreasonably restrict investigators, representatives of
affected international communities, study partners and the extended scientific
community from attending conferences, participating in face to face interactions and in
research or work with extended groups of colleagues.
The U.S. government deserves enormous credit for its leadership on AIDS. It has
accomplished a great deal in supporting basic prevention programs and in expanding
access to AIDS treatment. The U.S. government has provided global leadership in the
effort to develop an AIDS vaccine, providing around 85% of all global public investment
in HIV vaccine research. This new policy, if adopted, would discredit those
achievements.
The proposed policy is impractical. It leaves it to U.S. consular officers abroad to
determine whether a visa applicant poses a public health danger when traveling to the
U.S. But a consular officer is not a medical profession and is thus not suited to make
such a decision.
The proposal is unfair. Only HIV-positive foreigners who are required to secure visas in
advance of travel to the U.S. would be compelled to fulfill the requirements of the
proposed rules, for instance, to ?show a controlled state of HIV infection.? Visitors from
countries that have visa waiver relationships with the U.S. would not have to fulfill these
new requirements.
The proposal is not justified by scientific or public health concerns. Travel restrictions
to protect public health are appropriate in the case of a casually transmitted
communicable disease or outbreaks of a highly contagious disease. HIV/AIDS is
neither. HIV can be transmitted through the sharing of unsterilized needles or through
unprotected sexual intercourse. It is neither casually nor easily transmitted. The
proposed policy may even have a negative impact on public health in that it could
cause HIV-positive individuals to discontinue their use of antiretroviral (ARV) therapy
while in the U.S. out of fear of being caught with ARVs and thus labeled HIV-positive.
Discontinuing ARV therapy can have the serious repercussion of increasing an
individual?s chances of developing drug-resistant HIV.
AIDS is a global epidemic, and the mobilization to combat the epidemic is a global
effort. Not surprisingly, a number of the actors in this effort are themselves HIV
positive, not least of all because those who live in the countries most affected, notably
in sub-Saharan Africa, are among the individuals most motivated to take action. In any
case, 33.2 million people in the world are currently infected with HIV; closing the
country?s doors to that many people is simply not a sensible policy. It is a continuing
source of dishonor to the United States that the International AIDS Society, not
unreasonably, will not hold its conferences?including the world?s largest HIV/AIDS
meeting, convening more than 20,000 participants?on U.S. soil because of the U.S.
policy barring entry to HIV-positive individuals. The new, more restrictive policy, if
adopted, will only make matters worse.
There would be a real cost to be paid, in progress against AIDS, for this new policy.
IAVI?s scientific team, for instance, researches and develops AIDS vaccine candidates
and conducts HIV clinical trials and clinical research through partnership with more
than 40 academic, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and government institutions around
the world. IAVI?s work requires constant collaboration with scientists, policymakers and
advocates from, among other places, those parts of the world hardest hit by the
epidemic. Our headquarters staff travel to their home regions; they travel to our
headquarters and laboratory in New York. If this exchange of people and ideas is
hampered any more than it already is by further restrictions in immigration policy, the
global effort to develop a vaccine will suffer.
For these reasons, IAVI asks the DHS to withdraw the new proposal. What?s more, we
ask that the DHS collaborate with those who are engaged in combating AIDS to
prepare alternative rules, and to use this opportunity to work with Congress to repeal
the outmoded and insupportable statutory provisions of the Immigration and Nationality
Act that restrict travel on the basis of HIV status.
If I can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Seth Berkley
President and CEO, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative
About IAVI
The International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) is a global not-for-profit organization
whose mission is to ensure the development of safe, effective, accessible, preventive
HIV vaccines for use throughout the world. Founded in 1996 and operational in 24
countries, IAVI and its network of collaborators research and develop vaccine
candidates. IAVI's financial and in-kind supporters include the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Foundation for the National
Institutes of Health, The John D. Evans Foundation, The New York Community Trust,
the James B. Pendleton Charitable Trust, The Rockefeller Foundation, The William and
Flora Hewlett Foundation; the Governments of Canada, Denmark, Ireland, The
Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States, the
Basque Autonomous Government as well as the European Union; multilateral
organizations such as The World Bank; corporate donors including BD (Becton,
Dickinson & Co.), Continental Airlines, Google Inc., Henry Schein, Inc., Merck & Co.,
Inc. and Pfizer Inc; leading AIDS charities such as Broadway Cares/Equity Fights
AIDS and Until There's A Cure Foundation; other private donors such as The Haas
Trusts; and many generous individuals from around the world. For more information,
see www.iavi.org.