VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 29 (UPI) -- A Canadian man in British Columbia is challenging the 1987 U.S. law banning people with HIV from entering the United States.
Martin Rooney was fingerprinted at the Washington state border and told to return home to Surrey in November after he told an immigration official he was on disability because of HIV, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported.
The United States is one of 13 countries, including China, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Sudan, that ban HIV-positive visitors and immigrants.
HIV is the only medical condition singled out as a basis for inadmissibility under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass, told the newspaper the restriction was ridiculous in an e-mail.
"This law was written when little was known about the disease and destructive stigmas often won the day," Kerry wrote. "With new knowledge about the disease, we must make it clear that this discriminatory, Draconian law will no longer be tolerated."
Kerry attached an amendment to the global AIDS relief bill to end the practice. It was approved this month by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and still faces a full Senate vote before going to the House, he said.
