37 AIDS Activists Arrested at 2 Protests
Thirty-seven shouting AIDS activists were arrested Tuesday after they briefly occupied offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Los Angeles and San Francisco to protest the agency’s ban on the immigration of people who show signs of HIV infection. There were no injuries.
Authorities said 13 supporters of Stop AIDS Now or Else were taken into custody after they entered the Los Angeles Federal Building and confronted INS Deputy Dist. Director Donald Looney. In San Francisco, 24 others were detained after they forced their way into the offices of David Ilchert, INS district director there.
A SANOE spokesman in Los Angeles said the INS policy “needlessly hinders free travel across the border and creates an international atmosphere of fear and misinformation regarding HIV and people with HIV infection.”
INS Regional Commissioner Ben Davidian, when contacted, called the protests “lawlessness.”
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