HIV-Positive Immigrant Wins Battle to Remain

From HIVPLUSMAG.com

HIV-positive Mexican immigrant Jose Luis Ramirez was released from custody last month after winning a six-month appeal with immigration courts that ruled his offer to perform oral sex for pay a “particularly serious crime” due to the fact that he had HIV. The judge had ordered that Ramirez be deported from California back to Mexico.

Lambda Legal and the HIV Law Project submitted a friend of the court brief in the case, which cited a number of studies concluding that there have been no documented cases of HIV transmission as a result of an HIV-positive person performing oral sex and demonstrating that such a transmission was highly unlikely occurrence. The brief then asked the Board of Immigration Appeals to overturn the ruling.

After the brief was filed, the Department of Homeland Security retracted its argument that Ramirez’s HIV status made his action a “particularly serious crime” and Immigration Appeals finally vacated the ruling last week.

In 2009 the nonprofit organization Ramirez worked for went bankrupt, his long-term relationship ended, and he became homeless. These events forced him to engage in prostitution, knowing that he was HIV-positive. It was during this time that an undercover police officer offered to give Ramirez money in exchange for oral sex, an offer he accepted and was ultimately arrested for. Admissions from the officer would later show that Ramirez agreed to use a condom while performing oral sex, a fact that didn’t seem relevant during the court proceedings. Read more…

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