International AIDS Conference: Why are we still taken to a secondary room at immigration?

I arrived in Washington DC yesterday to attend meetings before the International AIDS Conference, which starts on 22 July, and to report on them through this blog for the next couple of weeks. What many people do not know is that the US has been unable to host this particular conference since 1990 because of a travel ban on people living with HIV. Thankfully, after a lot of advocacy from HIV activists and other people working in the HIV sector, the ban was lifted in early 2010 after being signed into law by President Obama in 2009.

However, for some of us who had already declared our HIV status to US immigration and travelled to the US on special visas, sadly very little has changed. Every time I get to the immigration desk at any point in the US, my HIV status gets flagged up and I am taken to a secondary room, where other people suspected of all sorts of things are referred to, waiting to hear whether they will be let in into the US – or not.

Well, yesterday was no exception, I ended in a tiny room to be questioned just as I have been many times before the travel ban was lifted and many times after. So what has changed? As far as I am concerned, the ban got lifted but the implementation of the ban is still a challenge. So for me the criminalization and stigmatization of living with HIV continues and we need to continue to advocate that people should be allowed to enter the US without having to be questioned about their HIV status.

This time though, I appeared to have got some sympathy from one of the immigration officers who attended to me in the secondary room. The officer asked me if I always have to come to the secondary room each time I travel to the US and I said yes. He went on to say that he would like to rectify this situation for me by giving the address of a website I could write to and ask them why I constantly have to be placed in the secondary room – even though the travel ban on people living with HIV was lifted two years ago! I have every intention to pursue this.

Back to the international conference whose theme this year is “Turning the Tide Together”. A lot is expected of this conference, and what is likely to figure most prominently in the discussions is where we are in terms of finding a cure, and how much time and money is being invested in the process.

Of course, the issue of where the money is going to come from to invest in research, in treatment or any work on HIV is going to be an on-going topic. The numbers of those living with HIV who need treatment will only continue to rise and the full scale implementation of treatment for prevention needed to happen yesterday.

Winnie Ssanyu Sseruma is an Advocacy and Networks Officer for the Community Health & HIV team at Christian Aid. Winnie has also been living with HIV for almost 25 years.

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• http://www.facebook.com/drmarklesliewoods Mark Leslie Woods

  “He went on to say that he would like to rectify this
  situation for me by giving the address of a website I could write to and
  ask them why I constantly have to be placed in the secondary room –
  even though the travel ban on people living with HIV was lifted two
  years ago! I have every intention to pursue this.” Please, also share the website address with us, so we can all write and protest!

• ivandenisovich

  The stupidity and ignorance of US border guards has to be seen to be believed.

• JaitcH

  Unless you are a citizen of a country, the immigration can do anything they want to you, usually without access to a lawyer.

  The US immigration are some of the most animal-like officials you have to deal with – even with their own people.

  It is just as well you admitted you always visited the little room, they knew that from your travel records AND lieing to a federal official is a FELONY!

  Next time you meet with US immigration, note their actions.

  Every question they ask is preceded by a screen read; every answer you give is followed by keyboard action.

  You can get copies, free, of these documents they complete by application to Homeland Security. Takes 30 days and any traveler to the US is entitled to get a copy. I suggest you get a copy before you file a request about the little room.

  And wyh a little room? Do you really want to discuss your health challenges, in public, at an immigration desk?

• Robin Peacock

  and the address is; ????????????

• http://www.facebook.com/emma.pomfret.1 Emma Pomfret

  Here’s the website courtesy of Winnie http://www.dhs.gov/trip

• Fool_Brittania

  Pigs in uniform.

  I flew Cathay back from HongKong and they stopped in Alaska for gas. They announced it was a technical stop and for safety reasons PAX had to disembark. I left all my low value stuff on board locked in my carry on.

  We were held in a crow-bar ‘alien’ secure waiting room and each PAX had to be fingerprinted and mug-shot. The US has the stupid habit.

  Big she-man immigration woman says: “Passport”, I reply: “On the plane”. She-man starts ranting and raving about she needs my passport to ‘process’ me.

  I said this was announced as a technical stop. She calls older supervisor and snidely says: This man said this was a technical stop so he left everything on board. Supervisor said: “He’s right, you shouldn’t be doing a process as they aren’t coming n to the country”.

  He then said scrap the lot!

  Dumb people.

• Fool_Brittania

  Use Google and search > Record of my travel in and out of the United States, FOIA <.

  FOIA is Freedom Of Information Access.

  Please
  print out the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Form (USCIS
  Form G-639), review the instructions, fill it
  out and send it to the following address. Do not use the address
  listed on the attached instruction sheet.

  U.S. Customs and Border Protection
  FOIA Division
  799 9th Street NW, Mint Annex
  Washington, DC 20229-1177
  apsanlaw DOT com/law-207.Obtaining-a-Record-of-my-travel-in-and-out-of-the-United-States DOT html

• Fool_Brittania

  Replace the DOT with periods and no spaces.