Case Spotlight: International Travel Notification

In 2011, the Supplemental Guidelines for Sex Offender Registration and Notification officially included in SORNA’s standards the obligation that jurisdictions require their registered sex offenders to provide 21 days’ notice of any international travel. However, before International Megan’s Law passed, it was difficult to federally prosecute sex offenders for failing to notify registration officials of intended international travel or relocation. For example, in Nichols v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 1113 (2016), the Supreme Court held that a sex offender could not be federally prosecuted for failure to register under 18 U.S.C. § 2250 (as it stood in 2012) if they simply moved to a foreign country without notifying the state where they had been registered prior to moving. Full Article (SMART Office)

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One question, does the following statement “For jurisdictions that have not implemented the 2011 international travel notification requirement, this could impact your ability to prosecute under this offense” mean that the states have to adopt this policy in order for the federal government to prosecute? I have traveled out of the country 3 times since 2011 with no problems. Thanks for the input.

The English language is funny…

Prosecuting and incarcerating in prison a person not on parole or probation is considered a “success”? How so? For whom?

What would a “failure” look like? A tax savings of ~$100k?

These restrictions on a citizen’s free movement were a big factor in the USSR having been called the “Evil Empire”. How soon they forget…

Heeeee……

It should be noted that this guy never DID travel, as he was denied boarding the plane for lack of return ticket / visa required by the destination country – nothing to do with his registrant status.

He was convicted under 18 U.S. Code § 2250 – Failure to report INTENDED travel. Talk about a thought crime. This CANNOT be constitutional.

Yeah the language in the statute states specifically if you are on any state registry for an offense against a minor you are subject to IML. Not in a state registry, IML not applicable, that’s my educated determination.

What if you live in a state that does not,require registration for an offense the original state of conviction still does? How do you make notification of international travel. SORNA defines various tiers and length of registration. If you are not required to register be Federal lay, such as tier I after 10years, but some state like CA requires life time registration, do you still have to provide 21 days notice?

There simply are too many variables which depends on the state of conviction, state of residency, federal law definitions, to make this apply equally. For my case, in WA I have a 10 year registration requirement which meets with federal law (tier I), but I have a court order that registration is not required in Alaska. What am I to do with regard to international travel?

It really does not matter right now, for my passport has expire and will wait for a coup,e more years to hit the 10 year mark and not meet federal requirements to register.

😡 Sooo frustrated & angry! 😡

All of these requirements/ regulations/ restrictions/ laws are so ridiculously complex and convoluted, it seems the true intent is to entrap registrants. There are probably 10X as many ways to get locked up for an FTR or “failure to notify” offense than there are for actual sexual offenses!

Does anybody know if you can just give a blanket notification to travel? We have a place across the border in Mexico and go there sometimes at last minute notice. Can we just send in a notice every 3 weeks to our police department in case we decide to travel that weekend? Is it a crime to send it in and then decide not to travel?

Another question. The 21 day requirement is from the AWA and not in the IML. What if you are not required to follow the AWA since it was found unconstitutional in Ohio and Michigan? The IML is heavily laden with references from the AWA including definitions. Michigan does not require me to give 21 days notice even though the AWA does. I believe this is the loop hole the Angel watch was referring to.

@ Mike M “The 21 day requirement is from the AWA and not in the IML”

Really? There is no 21 day requirement in the IML? Then why would anyone in California ever give notice before traveling?

After Rep. Smith, on his official government website, made the following statement last November:

“We know from law enforcement and media documentation that Americans on U.S. sex offender registries are caught sexually abusing children in Asia, Central and South America, Europe—everywhere,”

https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=400752

I repeatedly called his office to find out the number of those registrants who are caught sexually abusing children in Asia, Central and South America, Europe—everywhere. Since we *know*. I stipulated that I would prefer documentation from law enforcement but would settle for media reports.

After calling about 4 times with the same request over the course of 3 months or so, I was told that I needed to make my request to my own representative, who then would – do what? Not sure. “Professional courtesy” or some such.

Wondering – anyone here from New Jersey’s 4th District who is *entitled* to this information?

https://chrissmith.house.gov/contact/

This may be a good place, i.e. in a discussion about our right to travel, at home or abroad, to link to a splendid talk from former Judge Anthony Napolitano: “How the Courts Killed Natural Law” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uTR3qNW70w

I need to leave the country and am no longer required to register in my current state. However, Texas has me listed on their site for life even though I dont live there. I called my current state’s office to notify them that I am leaving the country and they told me they can not take my info since I am not a registrant. They said perhaps I should call Texas.
Texas told me, they can not take my info because I have no duty to register there.
Does anyone know what I should do?

I’ve followed this smart.gov site for years, esp their so-called case law updates. I continually observe that they gloss over and lack detail when a case goes against the government, but when there is a court ruling in favor of SORNA, they are all over it in the amount of detail they push out.

i register in texas, if you no longer live in texas and do not register there, you are not listed on their website. because you do not have to register in the state you are in now (what state is that), and why do you not have to register now. you would not have to give the 21 day notice. no matter the crime, you have to be registered to be a part of the iml.
this is what sor office told me

I reside in the OC. When registering, we register with administrative staff. There are no officers etc available. Every time I come, I typically have questions. No one seems to know? Furthermore, I’ve never seen or read anything on the paper work provided that provides any form of info regarding International Travel?

Okay
I just went on (Ca) the Megan’s Law website. On supplemental laws, it states you must notify your registering agency 21 days prior? Geez. If I drove down to OC, this would be a 1.5-2 hour process. They are supposed to have a form! Read it!

Great comment David. You sound like a real team player. I do live in OC! It takes no less than 30 mins to drive down to Santa Ana. We have something called traffic. Furthermore, by the time you park/wait in something called a lone/wait some more after you fill out the paper work, it’s at least another 30 mins. When I register, it takes no less than 1 hour once I arrive. You can process this anyway you desire/you seem like you like to control things, but the website states the place of registration has a form or document. I would prefer to receive some form of documentation. You can reply back and argue how correct you are, but these are facts. I haven’t read anything about registered mail etc, but you must know something everyone else doesn’t. Thanks

I just sent in my passport for renewal early. My goal was to get the new passport with the IML marking now, so that when I get the visa I’m working on it will be attached to my new passport. I was worried that if the visa was attached to my old passport and it was revoked for not having the IML marking, I’d lose my visa and have lots of red tape to go through to get a new visa.

So, I got the new passport today. Lo and behold, there is no IML marking. Since I’ve been sent to secondary screening each time I return to the US at passport control, I fully expected that I’d be given a new passport with the IML marking, especially since I’m on the registry with a minor victim.

What gives?

Perhaps it’s because my state is not SORNA compliant? Perhaps for some reason I’m not on the Angle Watch list? Perhaps they just missed it? Perhaps I was supposed to fill out some special form?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome. I’d love to just assume I’m lucky, but this is the kind of luck that’s likely to kick me in the ass later on.