WASHINGTON (AP) – On World AIDS Day last month the White House said new rules would soon make it easier for people with HIV/AIDS to travel to the United States. But Democratic lawmakers and GLBT rights groups are complaining that the regulations proposed by the Homeland Security Department could actually create more barriers.

Sen. John Kerry introduced legislation Dec. 12 to repeal the new provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) that bar HIV-positive individuals from entering the United States, including HIV-positive doctors and experts as well as refugees seeking asylum. The bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore.

“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,” said Sen. Kerry in a Dec. 14 release from his office. “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.”

Frank Donaghue, Chief Executive Officer of Physicians for Human Rights based in Cambridge, Mass., applauded the introduction of the bill. “There have never been public health grounds for denying people living with AIDS admission to the United States,” Donaghue said. “The current policy violates the human rights of people with AIDS and has stigmatized them for more than 15 years. We welcome the Kerry-Smith bill.”

“Since 1993, the INA has designated HIV as grounds for inadmissibility to the U.S. A cumbersome waiver option is available to those wishing to enter this country, but the process is incredibly restrictive. These obstacles result in an almost wholesale rejection of any HIV positive individual from the United States, no matter their reason for entry. Kerry’s bill would strike the HIV restrictions from the INA and ask for a full review of the public health aspects of travel and immigration restrictions against those with HIV.

“President Bush acknowledged that the waiver system was a problem on World AIDS Day in 2006 when he asked the Department of Homeland Security to streamline the process. However, the proposed regulations are arguably more restrictive and intrusive.

“There are 12 proposed requirements of visitors and immigrants to this country that have HIV. The most egregious hurdles include: disclosure of HIV status to consular officials in the individual’s home country; certification that the individual has in their possession all medication necessary for the duration of their stay in the U.S.; certification that no symptoms are being exhibited; and a commitment to avoid all high risk behavior while in the U.S.,” the release from Sen. Kerry’s office said.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said last week that the proposal “offers little of value to HIV-positive applicants.

“It imposes strict requirements that unfairly limit travel to the United States,” Kennedy said after chairing a Senate health committee hearing on the Bush administration’s international AIDS efforts. “It is mired in the past, a past where people feared HIV as a contagious disease that could not be controlled or effectively managed.”

Bebe Anderson, HIV project director at the GLBT civil rights group Lambda Legal, said the rules were “inappropriate based on medicine and public health concerns.”

GLBT rights advocates have long opposed the 1993 federal law that strictly restricts travel and immigration to the U.S. by HIV-positive people, arguing it’s discriminatory. Foreigners with the virus can obtain visas only after receiving a waiver from the Homeland Security Department in a cumbersome process that requires approval from DHS headquarters.

The White House says it wants to make the process easier for HIV-positive people seeking 30-day stays.

“The administration is working to end discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS,” said a White House fact sheet. “A ‘categorical waiver’ will enable HIV-positive people to enter the United States for short visits through a streamlined process.”

The rule proposed by the Department of Homeland Security would allow short-term visas to be granted to HIV-positive people by U.S. consulates in their home countries, cutting out the involvement of DHS headquarters and thus speeding up the process. However, applicants would have to agree to certain conditions, including giving up the right to apply for a longer stay or permanent residency in the U.S.

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, more than two dozen Democratic House members objected that the changes don’t lessen the burden on HIV-positive people, instead shifting authority to “local consular officers who may lack the appropriate medical expertise.”

“There would be no appeal process,” said the letter released Monday by Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. “Selecting this pathway would also require applicants to waive any right to readjust their status once in the United States – a waiver not required under current policy.”

Homeland Security spokesperson Veronica Valdes contended the new rule does provide a streamlined process for HIV-positive visitors. She had no immediate response to Lee’s letter, saying the department would review it.

The comment period on the proposed rule closed last Thursday. Valdes couldn’t say when a final rule would be published.

Gay rights activists say the U.S. is one of just a handful of countries that restrict travel for HIV-positive people. Lee has introduced legislation to overturn the ban, and Lambda Legal and other gay-rights groups are advocating its passage.