Jailing of Dutch Traveler Who Has AIDS Stirs Protest Over U.S. Immigration Rule

A Dutch traveler on the way to an AIDS conference in San Francisco was jailed by federal officials in Minnesota on Sunday night after admitting that he has the deadly disease.

The action outraged some members of Congress, public health officials and homosexual rights activists who sought the man’s release Tuesday from a maximum-security prison.

Immigration officials detained Hans Paul Verhoef, 31, of Rotterdam when Customs Service inspectors found the drug AZT in his luggage at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport and he acknowledged that he is “an active AIDS patient,” said an aide to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).

AZT is used to treat people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus.

Chooses to Fight

The Immigration and Naturalization Service ruled that Verhoef cannot enter the United States under a law barring immigrants who have one of eight infectious and communicable diseases. The Dutchman was sent to a county jail after choosing to fight the ruling rather than return to the Netherlands.

On Tuesday, he was transferred to a maximum-security state prison because it has a hospital, authorities said. They rejected a request by a Minnesota community agency to take custody of Verhoef and provide what it called “support services and responsible housing.”

Claiming that the immigration ban was not intended to cover tourists, Pelosi and private attorneys sought a waiver that would enable Verhoef to attend a four-day National Lesbian and Gay Health Conference opening today in San Francisco.

Waiver Refused

Thomas J. Schiltgen, INS district director in St. Paul, refused Monday to grant the waiver and told Pelosi that it might take a week for an administrative judge to hear an appeal.

However, as protests against the jailing mounted, Schiltgen seemed to soften his position Tuesday, saying in a telephone interview that he would “take a long, hard look at any request for a waiver.”

In a later call, he said: “I would envision that the earliest decision could come on Thursday.”

Verhoef’s supporters also urged Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh, the head of INS’ parent agency, to issue a waiver.

Others May Have It

Bea Roman, an organizer of the San Francisco conference, said that she believes that others among the 120 health care educators scheduled to attend from 13 foreign countries have tested positive for the AIDS infection. But she said that Verhoef is the only one known to have encountered immigration problems.

His jailing triggered charges that the INS action violated an international agreement on unrestricted travel for AIDS patients and threatened efforts to improve education about the disease.

“I can’t understand what the INS thinks it accomplished by keeping a Dutch citizen out of a health conference about the disease that he has,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health and the environment.

“The United States has supported the World Health Organization’s efforts to keep travel free and open,” he added.

At a conference in London last year, the international organization adopted an agreement guaranteeing that AIDS would not be used as a basis to hamper international travel. A woman who helped write the agreement--Dr. June Osborn, dean of public health at the University of Michigan--charged that it had been breached by the INS.

“I’m horrified,” she said. “. . .This kind of action is extraordinarily foolish and regrettable.”

The action also sparked indignation at a sister agency of the INS, the Public Health Service.

A spokesman said that PHS officials were aware that a 1987 immigration law--adding AIDS to a list of seven diseases that can block entry into the United States--could be interpreted to apply to tourists as well as to those seeking permanent residence. However, the officials said that they believe the intent of the law was to exempt tourists, spokesman James Brown added.

Conference organizer Roman, executive director of the National Lesbian and Gay Health Foundation, said that the action is “so detrimental to the exchange of information on the newest methods of health care prevention.”

She described Verhoef as “a health educator involved with the prevention of AIDS” in the Netherlands.