HHS relaxes entry rules on immigrants with STDs

The Obama administration has expanded a 2009 decision to let immigrants with HIV into the country to also include three sexually transmitted diseases known for causing lesions on genitalia.

The Department of Health and Human Services has opened the borders to immigrants with granuloma inguinale, chancroid, and lymphogranuloma venereum, which will no longer be considered communicable diseases of public health significance, the Washington Examiner reported Tuesday.

The HHS said the three bacterial infections, which are transmitted through sexual contact, have never been common in the U.S. and have become “increasingly rare throughout the world,” according to a Jan. 26 Federal Register entry.

The HHS said the cost of lifting the ban is “not economically significant, i.e. more than $100 million of costs and benefits in a single year.”

With the rule change, the inadmissible communicable diseases that bar immigrants from entry would only include syphilis, gonorrhea, tuberculosis and leprosy.

The HHS said the rule change is set to take place in less than 60 days, the Examiner reported.

In a Center for Immigration Studies report released Tuesday, analyst Jon Feere wrote: “And not to worry, HHS also explains that these ’primarily tropical infections can be prevented through improved personal hygiene and protected sex’ and that if you do get them, the STDs can be cured ’with a short, uncomplicated course of antibiotic therapy.’ Hopefully they’re telling the immigrants that.”

Mr. Feere added, “This change in policy illustrates, once again, that increased immigration is the main goal of the Obama administration, no matter the costs. The administration itself estimates that more people will become infected and that there will be increased health care costs as a result of these changes. But obviously these are considerations that have little relevance for those with an open-border perspective,” the Examiner reported.