International Megan’s Law: Cruel and Unusual Punishment
We hear a lot of heartbreaking stories from registrants and families. Some of the worst are when families are divided.
One of our members, who has a decades-old conviction, for which he got probation, left the country 17 years ago and hasn’t come back. He went on to live a good life in this other country, established a business, got married and had three children. In October, his mother fell gravely ill and he returned to see her. When he flew into the country (another state) he did what he was supposed to do and registered his one-week stay, letting them know he would be going home on November 7th.
Our country sent a “green notice” to the country he now (and for the past 17 years) lives, warning them of his arrival, flight information and registration flyer. Not surprisingly, the authorities were waiting for him and upon arrival he was immediately turned back. Unwilling to step foot in the US again, he’s currently exiled in a third country, unwilling to be subjected to a lifetime of persecution in the US and unable to return home to his family. He desperately misses them and they miss him.
Yesterday, one of the commenters on our site shared the sad result of their planned trip to Jamaica for their daughter’s wedding. She wrote:
ZAQ on April 4, 2018 at 10:18 pmThey turned us away! My husband will not be able to walk his daughter down the aisle in Jamaica or have the father daughter dance tomorrow.
After all the back and forth we decided to go and try. We all took flight together praying that my husband could talk to somebody we were with his daughter with the wedding dress and everything but NO.
We got sent on same plane.The minute we landed in Jamaica while on plane they made an announcement With my husbands name to meet airport staff at gate.
One thing they were polite and respectful. They allowed us to walk with my husband. They took him for a moment to another room. I was hopeful since they were being nice. But they told me before they told him that he’s going back to USA and asked if I was going with him.
I wasn’t going to stay with out him. He was destroyed.
They said USA regulation they put pressure and made agreement that they cannot allow anyone with this type of record even if it’s been almost 25 years level 2 or any.I’m so angry at the system! My husband has never had any other record. He took a plea when he was young didn’t know any better. He did make a mistake served 2 years.
I think they have to change something. If someone has gone so many years with out any offense, has gotten treatment, or evaluated they should be freed from this label.
What’s sad is I want to do something about it but i can’t expose my husband because he lives with this shame and fear!
It’s just messed up! They should tell you before you get on plane that this would happen!
We lost money, but most importantly we will miss thus very special wedding.
My step daughter and her fiancé were destroyed.
These stories are horrific! Imagine a daughter unable to have her father walk her down the isle. Not having her family with her on the most special day of her life!
Imagine a wife and small children not knowing when they will see their father again. A family without their bread winner. Stuck in limbo, potentially having to leave a home and business behind and start over in a new country.
It’s reminiscent of the pogroms in Eastern Europe or the persecutions in Syria. Only it’s the Unites States.
What a twisted, sadistic country we live in, that feels the need to torture the families of registrants! That is all the International Megan’s Law does – inflicts cruel and unusual punishment!
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I tried to travel to Jamaica i was not allowed entry my offense happend when i was 12 years old i am now 37 my wife was born in Jamaica we had dreams of getting duel citizenship i can not afford a lawyer does anyone have any experience getting citizenship in a other country or petitioning a country for entry any info would be greatly appreciated
The real purpose of the IML is not to prevent child sex trafficking and sex tourism in what Representative Chris Smith claims because that task would be impossible to accomplish and the people that are doing these things are usually criminals from other countries that have not been caught, prosecuted and do these things on rare occasion. The real purpose of the IML is to ban registrants from international travel because they’re deemed by the media as “high risk offenders” and when they do the mandatory 21 day notice with the authorities, it gets them in the system for the feds to automatically take action of send alert notices out to destinations without letting registrants know what will happen when they arrive and are usually turned away and sent back home, and even if a country allows registrants in, that could change at anytime. They make it seem like they’re fighting crime globally with cooperation from many foreign government agencies around the world and expect to believe the IML will put the end of sex trafficking and sex tourism through advance notifications and new passport which will never work.
Let the professionals that work with the Megans law registrants do their job. The population of registrants that have lived in society (jails without walls) are not getting a chance to live their life by way of over regulations. when a crime and punishment are completed why must the registrant continue to be micromanaged and punished. The International law is a high paid babysitting service that impedes the pleasure of travel and family trips. Micro management of this population is getting to be criminal in its own right.
Is anything being done in any jurisdiction (Federal) to challenge IML?
Last I heard the ASCOL suit in US District Court in California decided that the State Department did not issue improper regulations regarding the International Megan’s Law even though the scope of the regulations exceeded that law. In doing so, the court relied upon another myth – that individuals convicted of a sex offense involving a minor are likely to engage in child sex tourism or child sex trafficking.
Now that so many travelers are being substantially harmed by the “identifier” in their passport, and in many instances, passports being revoked, isn’t this the time for a full frontal attack on this pernicious law?
My son joined me in the city of Fort Myers, He followed all the report serequirements of the visit. He was told to go to the station of the sheriffs department to sign in. He went to the first stations was told to wait 1 hour till the sheriff officer returned. He returned in one hour and was sent to another building on the other side of town. Once he was there he was told that this was not the right place go to another site 4 miles away, he was not able to report so he had to leave out of fear of being in violation. Cruel and harrassement.
ok
so he left the u.s. 17 years ago. he did not have to register in the other country?
he came back to visit for 7 days, and why would he have to register anywhere, he is visiting not moving back. why would he tell them when he is leaving and where? in my state you have 10 days to register if you move here, that is move, not visit. if you are not registered in the u.s. why are you reporting anything.
this makes no sense. anyone validate this story
Fort Myers is a City in Florida.
Florida law is you MUST register if you are visiting for more than5 days, .This holds true for visitors before June 30th (tomorrow).
After that the law changes effective July 1 to be 3 days. However, the new law is quite confusing as to what constitutes 3 days. One reading is that you must register within the first 48 hours.
This is the law, if caught one will not only be on the registry for life, but is subject to 6 months house arrest and GPS monitoring
Lee County registration office is on Six Mile Cypress that the correct place to register in Fort Myers Florida.
when we tried to visit fort myers we went to that site, they said someone would be back in a hour but we could go to another site went to the next site no one there knew what todo.
So here are some questions. If you are on a STATE registry, which most are, who are you required to report your travel to? If you are currently in Florida but move to say Vermont, Georgia, etc where you can either come off the registry automatically as a matter of law or can be removed by court order, are you still required to report your travel because you were convicted in Florida? I ask this in light of the fact Florida leaves you on their website even though according to them, you are not required to “maintain” your registration if you are not residing/working in Florida. In the case of a state like Vermont where you are never even required to report to the state if you qualify for the 10 year relief, who would or could tell the Feds that you were “not registered?”
No, Florida owns you and you WILL show up on the National Sex Offender registry regardless. Once on the Florida registry you are there for life!
If you would like to get your life back then I strongly suggest that you and all the others who think they can simply ignore Florida need to wake up!
Donate to the Out Of State legal fund to get off the list and get your life back – it is the ONLY way!
I did a little quick research. First let me say that victimization of any type is unacceptable, and I certainly am not trying to justify human trafficking. However, what I am trying to show is that there is absolutely NO justification for the IML. It is another feel good victimization of people that have already paid their debt (no such thing in reality). Just a note – I found few statistics on the relationship of RSOs to international travel for trafficking. A current report (June 2017) signed by Rex Tillerson cited that sex offenders travel overseas for sex trafficking along with (wait for it) national dignitaries (I wonder if their passports are marked?) and others. However, there are absolutely no references or statistics to back up those statements. There is mention on pg 419 that in 2016 10 registered sex offenders from the US (yes 10 out of a million) were arrested and convicted for overseas sex tourism/ trafficking. This was a booming increase from 3 the previous year! So that means all the tax payer dollars to implement IML had phenomenal results! Lol https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/271339.pdf
https://polarisproject.org/sites/default/files/us-citizen-sex-trafficking.pdf
This report on trafficking shows clearly that the vast majority of trafficking victims know their attacker (sound familiar?) – it also shows that the clear majority are for labor and not sex. In addition, the majority are adults and not minors.
https://freeholdarea-nj.aauw.net/files/2014/01/z-Human+Trafficking+Statistics.pdf
Although somewhat dated (and I am not sure of the bias of the Polaris Project) this report clearly shows a couple of things. One, that adult victims far out number minors. Also, the ratio of sex victims versus labor victims is 1:9! Clearly more labor victims than sexual ones.