Female immigrants now required to pay for $400 HPV vaccine to get green card
It’s another step to an already lengthy process.
Women ages 11 through 26 applying for a green card in the United States will now have to add the gardasil vaccine to the list of required vaccinations.
The new requirement went into effect Aug. 1 and will affect more than 130,000 immigrants a year.
"It’s a very expensive vaccine, it's one that has just been introduced here in the last couple of years,” Dr. Raul Garza, Jr. told Action 4 News.
The vaccine is said to protect against the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus or HPV which causes cervical cancer.
It's given in three shots and cost about $400 dollars.
Rogelio Nuñez with the immigrant advocacy group Proyecto Libertad said this requirement is just another barrier.
"It's a burden because it’s a costly issue,” Nuñez said.
He adds that green card applicants are already paying more than $1,000 dollars in fees and hundreds of dollars in mandatory medical exams.
"There are many things that are against the immigrant community this being one more, especially for women,” Nuñez said.
Dr. Garza said he hasn't administered the vaccine and doesn't push it since it hasn't been on the market for long.
He doesn't feel the federal government should make it a requirement either.
"They should have a choice to whether they want that type of protection or not,” Dr. Garza said.
According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, more than 200 thousand women between the ages of 10 and 29 were granted permanent resident status in the United States in the last two years.
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