There have been many comments / stories on recent travel to Mexico. This post is dedicated to Travel to Mexico. Some Mexico specific comments have been moved here for further discussion.
Also see:
Living with 290 – Traveling to Cabo San Lucas
Sharing More Information Will Enable Federal Agencies to Improve Notifications of Sex Offenders’ International Travel – United States Government Accountability Office, February 2013 (Highlights)
International Tracking of Sex Offenders Working Group – An interim report of the collaborative effort to develop a system for tracking registered sex offenders as they depart and enter the United States, as required by 42 U.S.C. 16928 (White Paper) – developed by representatives of the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, Department of State, and Department of Defense offenders as they depart and enter the United States, as required by 42 U.S.C. §16928, December 2010
Current Situation Results in Thousands of Passports Issued to Registered Sex Offenders – United States Government Accountability Office, June 2010 (Highlights)
Hi all, I have a question concerning entry to Mexico as an ex-registrant (de-registered).
Some quick background: When I was 17 I was arrested for possession of child porn in the state of Texas. I was sentenced to 9 years adjudicated probation and successfully completed in 2011. In 2015 I began the long process of de-registration and in January of 2016 I went before the judge and she granted my request. I am no longer required to register.
I’ve never been outside of the country. My friends want to take a trip to Cancun, Mexico over Thanksgiving week. I know that registered sex offeneders are not allowed entry into Mexico, but what about a de-registered offender?
I will be traveling by airplane, and my biggest fear is being turned away. I’ve heard many horror stories of this happening.
Should I be worried?
Also, pertaining to Megan’s Law – since I am no longer officially a “registered” offender, do I still have to notify law enforcement when I leave the country?
It’s so hard to find solid information, and I don’t want to make any mistakes.
Thanks you for any information you can provide!
“….the European Union in March voted to end visa-free travel for Americans in a nonbinding resolution. The EU, though, ultimately opted not to go through with the motion.”
Schengen or not, I imagine if we had to get visas, the visas may well be denied.
http://www.newsweek.com/under-trump-us-passport-falls-sixth-place-global-ranking-692594
Very specific question for you de-registered folks out there (please don’t comment on this if you don’t have a personal experience to back it up—I’m tired of the hearsay and assumptions being made about this):
If you traveled to Mexico WHILE REGISTERED and were denied entry and went back AFTER DEREGISTERING, what was your experience?
All of these postings say Mexico keeps a database and that once denied you are forever denied entry. How does anyone know this?
I’d like to try going back but don’t want to risk embarrassment to my family and friends. I’m hopeful SOMEONE out there has experienced this scenario and can let me know what came of it. Thanks in advance for sharing!
I just returned from my trip to Cancun and have some very promising news for those that are looking to de-register or will one day be off the registry.
My offense was possession of child pornography. I completed deferred adjudicated probation in 2011. I completed the de-registration program in the state of Texas in January of 2016. I’ve been of the registry ever since.
I was pretty confident there would be no travel notification sent since I’m no longer on the registry, but I was still worried because Mexico has stated that those “convicted of a serious crime” could still be refused.
I gave myself about a 50/50 shot of getting into Mexico and was literally terrified of being turned away. However, once getting there and going through immigration, it couldn’t have gone smoother. The officer scanned my passport and looked at the computer screen for about 5 seconds (the longest 5 seconds of my life) and then quickly stamped my passport. It was a great week in Cancun.
I have also read a lot of horror stories of people being detained on re-entry into the US, but that went without a hitch also. There was no mention of my previous crime and the whole process took no longer than a few minutes.
I searched far and wide for someone in a similar situation and could never find anyone. I hope this information is useful and gives some of you hope that not all is lost.
I have a misdemeanor indecent exposure conviction that didn’t involve minors and am currently a RSO in Cali. Most likely for only another 8 years. I lived in Mexico before and had a green temporary resident card. Do you think I would be able to visit again before my registry is done? First conviction, non violent, no minors, just indecent exposure
I was falsely accused of 1 count of 288a Lewd and Lacivious act under the age of 14 in San Diego back in 1985 at 23 years old, happily married three children and a beautiful wife, level III engineer Central Office Telecommunications. Never had any convictions or felonies in my life before or after, now I am 58, still have to register every 90 days and considered a tier 1 registrant can not find gainful employment, background checks take care of that right away. I was convicted on double hearsay evidence in court and cohearsed into a plea bargain deal as they threatened my wife while I was in county jail to take the children away. I went completely insane during that time that the fact law enforcement came into my home , interrogated myself and family from a conversation my apartment manager overhead from other children playing in a sandbox with my children while I was at work. They took me to jail and my family lost everything we worked so hard to build our lives and raise our children the best we knew how. Who are these people playing God and destroying the lives of innocent people forever. I spent 10 years total incarserated, got out tried to rebuild had a few decent jobs until Homeland Security went into effect, I just have had enough to where I just don’t care anymore, I am the nicest guy in the world, always helped other people never asked for anything in return, talk to my children when I can reach them, they understand their Dad is the best Dad there is. The system has to change, guilty until proven guilty is crazy, now the passports, who the hell are these people, you never see the ones that create the insanity they are the cowards that destroy humanity.