U.S. Won't Grant HIV-Positive Cuban Asylum
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| Give us your poor, your tired, but apparently not your HIV+ |
Well, not any Cuban migrant. Not if that Cuban is HIV+.
From The Southern Voice:
"Raul Hernandez, a gay man who defected from Cuba in 1993 to live in Brazil, had hoped to obtain permanent U.S. residency under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act after he arrived in 2000.
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But following a lengthy application and appeal process, Hernandez, 40, who lives in Arlington, Va., was turned down for admission under the Cuban Adjustment Act in 2005 because he's HIV positive."
The United States policies regarding HIV+ foreign nationals are amongst the most shameful in the world. Not only does the US bar HIV+ people from residency, it is one of only 12 countries in America that bars HIV+ foreigners from even entering the country. The other countries on the list? Places like Sudan, Iraq, Libya and Saudi Arabia.
President Obama's administration is in the process of repealing the travel ban, but that won't come into effect until later this year at the earliest. HIV research has come along way since 1987 when the ban went into effect. Patients on a proper medication regime are living longer lives, and the drugs greatly reduce their chance on infecting others since in many cases the virus is suppressed below measurable levels.
As for Hernandez, despite the fact America has denied him citizenship, it hasn't helped him from helping American citizens in need. He works as a caseworker assisting HIV patients at Washington's La Clinica Del Pueblo
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