
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 10, 1993                   TAG: 9306090419
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. TO LET HIV-INFECTED HAITIANS IN

The Clinton administration said Wednesday it would not immediately challenge a federal court ruling allowing entry into the United States of about 150 AIDS virus-infected Haitian refugees who are held at the Navy's base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The decision raises the prospect that hospitals and social service agencies - particularly in Florida, New York and Boston - may have to bear their costs of treatment, although attorneys who won Tuesday's ruling said most refugees are not now suffering from full-blown AIDS and may be able to live for years before requiring major health services.

The White House announced it would not seek to stay the order of U.S. District Judge Sterling Johnson Jr. of New York. Instead, Justice Department officials will review the case.

An eventual appeal would not affect the current refugees, however, because once a person has been granted U.S. entry - for whatever reason - they usually can remain for years by filing legal appeals if challenged, some private attorneys said. Once the refugees reach American shores in the coming weeks, they "will have the whole panoply of U.S. laws available to them," a federal immigration official said.

One Justice Department official, declining to have his name used, said he was certain Johnson's order would be appealed by the government: "This is the first time a court has interjected itself into a process set up by the executive branch of government outside the jurisdiction of the United States."

At the White House, spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers told reporters, "We're going to comply with the judge's ruling." She said U.S. policy toward AIDS-infected Haitian refugees predated the Clinton administration and "we thought under the circumstances it was prudent to continue doing what we were doing, which was reviewing the cases one at a time."

As a result of the court ruling, however, "the people in Guantanamo will be . . . brought into the United States" on military flights in the coming weeks, closing the camp where they had been held for 20 months, Myers said.

by CNB