Harvard and Boston area AIDS activist groups said they were disappointed with the U.S. Senate's vote last week to bar HIV-infected foreigners from immigrating to the United States.

Members of the Harvard AIDS Institute, some Harvard political groups and the Boston AIDS Consortium expressed resignation and frustration in interviews last week and yesterday. They said the decision conflicted with President Clinton's campaign promise to remove the existing ban on immigration.

"I think it's a shame that Congress has been led by fear over rationality," said Holly D. Ladd, director of the Boston AIDS Consortium.

The amendment, which restricts permanent immigration to the United States for those infected with the virus that causes AIDS, passed by a 23-vote margin in the Senate last Thursday. And it has forced Clinton to retreat from his promise, saying he will only allow HIV-infected tourists into the country and continue to ban those seeking medical treatment.

The amendment is attached to a bill authorizing National Institutes of Health funding, and it will next be debated in the House.

Executive Director of the Harvard AIDS Institute Richard G. Marlink expressed his disapproval at the vote. "I think it's a mistake," he said. Marlink explained that the Institute's public health policy indicates that contagious tuberculosis is the only disease which should be considered a threat from travelers.

Although Marlink's opinion is not necessarily indicative of the Institute's, he explained the Institute's general policy.

"The restriction of movement of HIV-positive individuals is discriminatory and not founded in public health policy." He added, "We are actively trying to help groups trying to lift the ban."

Any immediate reaction on the Institute's part, he said, would be determined by its board.

A majority of senators and others in favor of the ban argue the nation cannot afford the additional costs of health care for each HIV-infected immigrant.

Allowing individuals carrying the HIV virus to enter the country, they say, would also pose health risks to Americans.

Senator Edward M. Kennedy '54-'56 voted against the amendment and Senator John F. Kerry voted for it.

Ladd and Marlink agreed that the arguments of ban proponents are unfounded.

Ladd said that as the country with the most HIV-infected individuals in the world, the United States should be more concerned with stopping emigration of those carrying the HIV virus than with limiting immigration.

She added that immigrants would not draw extensively on health care revenues, calling the expected influx of HIV-infected foreigners "an imaginary flood."