Immigration policy plays a critical role in shaping access to HIV prevention, treatment, and care in the United States. Our communities living with HIV do not exist in a silo, and ensuring access to care for our diverse immigrant groups is essential to achieving managing viral loads, having an optimal quality of life, and improving public health outcomes.

When people cannot get consistent health care coverage, are limited on being allowed to receive available health services, and have concerns about immigration-related consequences, those barriers can delay testing, interrupt treatment, and make it more difficult for individuals to remain engaged in care. Those barriers not only impact an individual’s health outcomes but also weaken broader efforts to prevent HIV from being transmitted to others that destabilize our public health infrastructure.

Our latest fact sheet, Immigration Policy and HIV: Protecting Access to Care and Public Health, outlines key data points and policy considerations at the intersection of immigration and HIV. In addition, it highlights how current policies affect access to care and offers recommendations to ensure more equitable access to prevention, treatment, and supportive services.

This factsheet is a tool for advocates and community leaders to educate our policymakers at local levels and on Capitol Hill, as well as to inform conversations happening within our communities and workforce. Along with this factsheet, we encourage you to share your stories, which strengthen your advocacy efforts to affect immigration policy.