Lets once and for all set the record straight: The Helms amendment. as my colleagues affirmed in 1987. is sound policy. And it works. In late 1989 the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association made it perfectly clear that the AIDS immigration policy makes medical sense. The AMA resolution said: Immigrants have historically undergone a health assessment before admission into the citizenship process. To exclude HIV infection from the health assessment of those seeking United States citizenship would be a change in long standing U.S. policy and difficult to Justify on medical. scientific. or economic grounds. Although the delegates opposed mandatory testing of all visitors. it is important to note that the Immigration and Naturalization Service does not require AIDS testing for nonimmigrants. Rather. it asks visitors if they have any of the diseases which are on the list of dangerous contagious diseases. An article in the August 25. 1989. issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports [MMWR]. a publication of the Centers for Disease Control. documents cases of HIV2 infection which have been discovered by public health authorities as a result of the Helms amendment.
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Naturalization Immigration immigration Immigrants