Latinos Urge Halt to AIDS Testing in Amnesty Program

Organizers of the first national conference on AIDS among Latinos called Thursday for an end to the 3-month-old federal requirement that applicants for legalization under the new immigration law prove they have not been exposed to the AIDS virus.

Announcing the conclusions of a symposium held last week in Los Angeles, the group also called for new research into the types of behavior that expose Latinos to the fatal virus and for health care for AIDS patients regardless of legal status or ability to pay.

Finally, the group urged health service providers to become “bilingual and bicultural” and Latinos to overcome what they described as a widespread homophobia that has stymied attempts to fight the virus.

‘Our People Are Dying’

“This is a tragic situation,” said Lourdes Arguelles, a lecturer at UCLA and psychotherapist who is studying attitudes toward AIDS in the Latino and black communities. “Our people are dying.”

Latinos, who make up 7% of the U.S. population, represent nearly 14% of the 54,723 AIDS cases reported nationally as of Monday. They also account for a disproportionate percentage of the AIDS cases among women and children.

To address those problems, more than 100 Latino professionals from 15 states and 32 cities met for three days at the Westin Bonaventure. The recommendations announced Thursday are to be published and distributed to policy-makers and sources of funding.

Among the proposals:

- The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service should abandon its practice of requiring that all applicants for legalization be tested for exposure to the AIDS virus. The group charged that the policy is “psychologically devastating” and destructive to families.

Daniel Lara, who oversees community education programs for AIDS Project Los Angeles, said the new policy is forcing longtime residents underground rather than face separation from their families when the INS learns they have been exposed to the virus.

- Funding for AIDS-related services for Latinos should reflect their representation and distribution in the general population, the group said. And it should be distributed at a grass-roots level in order to enable the community itself to confront the epidemic.

- Research should focus on what activities place Latinos at risk for AIDS. Efforts to educate Latinos about AIDS must be based on new research, recognizing that it is no longer possible to generalize about sexual behavior in the Latino community.

“I think we have a situation of a profoundly homophobic community,” Arguelles said. Although those attitudes are changing, she said, “what we’re calling for here is . . . a recognition by providers of services of the need to work through that homophobia.”

- Efforts must be made to reduce the inequities in the health care system that have deprived some Latinos of adequate and appropriate care, the group said.

Currently, Latinos are found to have AIDS at later stages of the disease than are other groups, and they have “very limited, if any,” access to alternative treatments, said Dr. Hector Blejer-Prieto, a physician who specializes in preventive medicine.

Asked about the INS requirement, Duke Austin, an INS spokesman in Washington, said it went into effect Dec. 1 after Congress voted to include exposure to the AIDS virus on the list of dangerous contagious diseases that bar any foreigner from immigrating.

Also on the list are syphilis, gonorrhea, tuberculosis and leprosy. “I’m sure that you would agree that none of them today is as dangerous as the AIDS virus,” Austin said.