Immigrant HIV Assistance Program Forced to Close Its Doors

As the dust settles on Capitol Hill's 2005 appropriations bills, HIV+ latinos, asylum seekers, and gay immigrants will be disproportionately and adversely affected by another round of federal cutbacks. The Immigrant HIV Assistance Project (IHAP), the only bilingual legal assistance program serving the HIV+ latino community in the San Francisco Bay Area, is closing at the end of May, leaving some of the most vulnerable members of the community with no legal recourse.

Congress has cut or flat-funded programs established by the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act, in favor of increases for Bush's abstinence-only prevention programs ($10.3 million), the Department of Defense ($21 billion), and the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan ($25 billion).

IHAP has served the San Francisco Bay Area for over 20 years, first as part of the San Francisco Bar Association Volunteer Legal Services Program, and more recently at the AIDS Legal Referral Panel (ALRP). Over the years, volunteer attorneys have through this program helped thousands of gay, and HIV+ Latino, Asian, African and other immigrants who were escaping severe discrimination and persecution in their native countries. For many of these victims their only recourse has been to seek refuge in the United States and apply for asylum.

Through IHAP, attorneys have donated pro bono legal services assuring that these asylum seekers received the sanctuary to which they are entitled under international and U.S. law. According to Ana Montano, an immigration attorney with ALRP, "These volunteer attorneys have provided the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal work, but more importantly, for Latinos seeking asylums, it is a matter of life or death."

With IHAP losing its funding, hundreds of immigrants seeking asylum will be left without legal status and without INS-sanctioned Work Authorization. Many will shy away from programs offering HIV prevention health services, because they fear their illegal immigration status will be discovered. This can have direct and severe health consequences for the Latino community in San Francisco.

Nationwide, providers of health care and legal services funded by CARE are struggling to keep their programs afloat as they are forced to cut staff and turn away patients. In Houston, clinic director Katy Caldwell can attest that "The clients don't stop coming just because the money stops." In San Francisco, they may, because IHAP's doors are closing at the end of the month.