Once this legislative session is over, we will have some time to focus on another hot button topic which has emerged recently; International Travel.

During last legislative session, a new law was passed which created the following rule:

• If I intend on establishing a permanent, temporary, or transient residence in another state, jurisdiction, or country other than the State of Florida, I MUST report in person to the sheriff’s office in the county of my current residence within 48 hours before the date that I intend to leave this state to establish residence in another state, or jurisdiction, or within 21 days before my planned departure date if the intended residence of 5 days or more is outside of the United States. {F.S. 943.0435(7); 775.21(6)(i)}.FAILURE TO REPORT THIS INFORMATION IS A THIRD DEGREE FELONY

So if you travel outside the United States for 5 days or more you need to report in person  to re-register or you commit a third degree felony.

Now what happens if you DO report? Well the receiving country will get a notification warning them that a registrant is coming and that warning will imply that you are traveling there for illicit purposes and at minimum you will be pulled into another room and interrogated for a while and more likely, you will be denied entry into the country and black balled.

This has happened to the writer, who was traveling to visit family in another country!

It’s not fair! It NEEDS to be challenged. If you feel this is a challenge FAC should take on, please chime in with your comments so we know it’s important to our members.

Below is an editorial from Janice Bellucci from California RSOL.

Janice’s Journal: Registered Citizens Trapped in U.S.

Registered citizens are being trapped in the U.S. by the federal government. They are not allowed to travel overseas for business reasons, to visit family members, or just to relax on vacation.

The reason given for this entrapment is to prevent the international sex trafficking of children. We do not support international sex trafficking of children which is a heinous crime. However, the U.S. government is overreaching in the methods it uses to address this real and dangerous problem. That is, the U.S. government is targeting virtually all registered citizens who attempt to travel abroad. It matters not that their offense did not involve a child or occurred decades ago and hasn’t been repeated.

The U.S. government is preventing registered citizens from traveling overseas in a number of ways, including reviewing the manifests for international flights. If a registered citizen is found on such a flight manifest, U.S. government officials provide a written warning to the country into which they are traveling. The receiving country, in turn, does not allow entry into that country and in fact immediately deports the registered citizen.

This all happens with no prior notice to the registered citizen and/or those who are traveling with him/her. Deportation of a registered citizens is embarrassing and expensive at the least and a violation of his/her constitutional rights at the worst.

Where is the due process guaranteed for all citizens by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution? If a registered citizen is not allowed to travel outside the U.S., then the U.S. government must provide that citizen with a hearing during which he/she can provide evidence that he/she is not involved and has never been involved in international sex trafficking.

In the absence of such hearings, registered citizens have already been denied entry into may countries, including but not limited to, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Argentina, the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines.

In one such case, a registered citizen is being denied re-entry to the Philippines where he moved 10 years ago and subsequently married, started a family, initiated a business and purchased a home. He left the Philippines a year ago for what he thought was a 30-day business trip to the U.S.

Several decades ago U.S. citizens, including U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas and author Arthur Miller, were prohibited from traveling abroad because the U.S. government determined their overseas travel was “not in the interests of the United States”. Fortunately, the U.S. government corrected that problem long ago.

It is now time for the U.S. government to correct the problem it has created by preventing overseas travel by registered citizens. The U.S. government must either allow registered citizens to travel overseas or conduct hearings that provide registered citizens with their due process rights.

– Janice Bellucci