In August, Tennessee organizations that aid low-income individuals living with HIV received a surprise memo from the state’s health department:
“Effective immediately,” the memo said, “no patients without documentation of citizenship or legal residency may be newly enrolled” in many of the services provided through the federal Ryan White HIV/AIDS program or a companion program known as HOPWA, or Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS.
The federal government does not require immigration status checks as a condition of receiving services through HOPWA or Ryan White, a program that has served as the cornerstone of the U.S. government’s response to HIV/AIDS for more than 30 years. Even as the Trump administration has sought to exclude immigrants from an array of public benefits, federal law explicitly exempts immigration status checks in federal programs for the treatment of communicable disease…