DALLAS - Immigration advocates say that a new requirement that girls as young as 11 be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted virus before they can become legal U.S. residents is unfair.
The federal rule added Gardasil to the list of vaccinations that female immigrants ages 11 to 26 must get before they can obtain "green cards."
The series of three shots over six months protects against the strains of the human papillomavirus blamed for most cases of cervical cancer and genital warts.
But the vaccine is one of the most expensive on the market and controversial.
At a cost of $400, Gardasil places an added burden on green card applicants already paying more than $1,000 in form fees and hundreds of dollars for mandatory medical exams, advocates say.
The mandate potentially affects tens of thousands of women and girls annually. More than 200,000 women and girls ages 10 to 29 were granted legal permanent resident status each of the past two years.
"This is a huge economic, social and cultural barrier to immigrants who are coming into America," said Tuyet Duong, senior staff lawyer for the Immigration and Immigrant Rights Program at the Asian American Justice Center.
Past efforts to require the vaccine for American girls has stirred emotional debate and complaints that such mandates intrude on family decisions about sex education.
In Texas, legislators last year fought off an order by Gov. Rick Perry requiring the shots for sixth grade girls amid questions about vaccine's safety, efficacy and cost. Similar programs were proposed in many states, but only Virginia has signed such a mandate into law.
"What surprised us the most is that this requirement is for immigrant girls and women, but not for the general population of natural born citizens," said Jessica Arons, director of the Women's Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress.
Despite objections by immigrant advocates that the law is invasive and unfair, a spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said the agency must enforce it.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Gardasil vaccine, made by New Jersey-based pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., Inc., in 2006. Then last year, an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the vaccinations for girls 11 or 12.
For U.S. citizens, the committee's recommendations serve only to provide guidance on immunization issues. But a 1996 change to America's immigration laws required anyone seeking permanent residency to get all the vaccinations recommended by the committee.
Jon Abramson, who chaired the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, said the panel never intended to require Gardasil for immigrants and wasn't aware its recommendation would become mandatory.
Merck spokeswoman Amy Rose said the drug company did not lobby the government to require the vaccine for female immigrants and that it wasn't aware of the mandate until after the rule took effect.
