Out of the Frying Pan and into the Quarantine: Why 8 U.S.C. § 1182 s HIV-AIDS Exclusion Should Not Apply to Refugees Seeking Entry into the United States
The Journal of Gender, Race & Justice - Nbr. 10-1, October 2006
Demetrius Lambrinos - Demetrius Lambrinos recieved his JD-MBA with an emphasis on law and economics from the University of Iowa in 2006.
Permanent Link:
http://vlex.com/vid/420225
Id. vLex: VLEX-420225
Click here to download this article in graphic format (Acrobat Reader)
Search in this document
Document options
I. Introduction II. Background A. A Short History of 8 U.S.C. § 1182 B. The 1993 Haitian Refugee Crisis and the Subsequent AIDS Quarantine at Guantanamo Bay III. Legal Analysis Of § 1182 A. The HIV Exclusion Violates Public Policy B. The HIV Ban Does Not Stem the Spread of AIDS 1. HIV Testing Increases Health Risks Because of Inherent Flaws in the Testing Procedures a. HIV Test Results are Plagued by False-Positives b. HIV Testing Yields False-Negatives. c. Mandatory Testing Instills a False Sense of Security. 2. The Threat of Deportation or Repatriation Under § 1182 Drives Many HIV-Positive Aliens Underground, thus Heightening this Risk of Exposure. 3. Trading Mandatory Testing for Counseling and Public Health Education, which are the Most Effective Tools in the Fight Against AIDS. C. Excluding HIV- Positive Refugees Damages U.S.Human Rights Credibility and Leads to Copycat Legislation Internationally D. The HIV Ban, as Applied to Refugees, Violates International Human Rights Norms 1. § 1182, as Applied to Refugees, Violates the Internationally Customary Norm of Nonrefoulment.
2. Detaining HIV-Positive Refugees Under § 1182 Deprives Them of Their Fundamental Right to Adequate Health Care 3. Indirect Human Rights Violations IV. Policy Recommendation: Immunize Political Refugees From The Exclusionary Effect Of § 1182 And Institute A Comprehensive Hiv/Aids Counseling/Education Program For All Legal Immigrants V. ConclusionOut of the Frying Pan and into the Quarantine: Why 8 U.S.C. § 1182 s HIV-AIDS Exclusion Should Not Apply to Refugees Seeking Entry into the United States
Demetrius Lambrinos, Demetrius Lambrinos recieved his JD/MBA with an emphasis on law and economics from the University of Iowa in 2006. He is currently practicing at the law firm of Zelle, Hofmann, Voelbel, Mason & Gette LLP in San Francisco where he primarily handles issues related to class action antitrust cases. He would like to thank Erin Herbold and everyone at JGRJ for helping make publication of this Note possible.
"Today´s real borders are not between nations, but between powerful and powerless, free and fettered, privileged and humiliated. Today, no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in the other." Kofi Annan, U.N. Secretary-General, in his 2001 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.1 I. Introduction Pierre Avril was fourteen when he was apprehended by the U.S. Coast Guard and detained at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba.2 Pierre was not an international terrorist or a criminal of any kind; rather, he was a political refugee fleeing persecution in Haiti who also happened to be HIV- positive.3 Pierre, along with 276 other detainees, was imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for over eighteen months.4 While living at the camp, Pierre and his fellow prisoners were subjected to strict forms of military discipline such as food deprivation and public humiliation.5 Two men were reportedly "hog-tied" when they refused to lay face down after a camp protest.6 The camp itself was so filthy and unsanitary that it was overrun with "rats the size of cats."7 Officials operating the camp also forcibly sterilized several female detainees through Depo-Provera injections.8 Many detainees, including Pierre, were permanently traumatized by their detention, and at least four of them have attempted suicide.9 Pierre was finally released, along with the last remaining prisoners at Guantanamo, when a federal district court closed the camp on June 8, 1993.10 Now he lives at a psychiatric correctional facility in New York.11 Joel Saintil, one of Pierre´s fellow detainees, was among the sickest in the camp.12 Human rights lawyers asked the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to send Joel and other deathly ill detainees to the United States for treatment, but the INS refused.13 Fortunately, the district court ultimately ordered their release,14 but Joel died three days after he arrived in the United States.15 Pierre and Joel were apprehended pursuant to a joint operation carried out between the U.S. Coast Guard and the INS from 1981 to 1991 called the Alien Migration Interdiction Operation (AMIO).16 Over the course of this operation, these agencies apprehended over...
If you are already a vLex customer, Access Here
