Source: ACSOL
A registrant and his wife were removed by from a plane they had already boarded in Los Angeles earlier this week. According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials who removed them from the plane, the registrant’s passport had been revoked because it lacked the unique identifier required by the International Megan’s Law (IML).
According to the registrant, he received no notice that his passport had been revoked prior to boarding the flight from Los Angeles to Amsterdam. After the registrant was removed from the plane, the DHS officials demanded that he surrender his passport to them. The registrant complied with that demand and is now required to apply for a new passport.
“Without a passport, the registrant and his wife were unable to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary with friends in Europe,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “In addition, they have lost the money they paid for their flights as well as for their lodging.”
Although requests have been made of DHS, the agency has so far refused to provide information regarding how or when the registrant was notified that his passport had been revoked. Due to COVID restrictions, it will take the registrant one month or longer to replace his passport.
“Due to this incident, it is highly recommended that registrants covered by the IML who lack a unique identifier in their passports, apply for a new passport with a unique identifier in order to prevent a similar experience,” stated Bellucci. “Registrants with passports that include a unique identifier are still allowed to travel to many countries, including 26 countries in Europe.”
Registrants covered by the IML’s passport requirement include individuals convicted of a sex offense involving a minor (under age 18) and who are required to register in any state. In accordance with the IML, the registrant notified local law enforcement more than 21 days prior to his departure of his overseas travel.
Download a PDF of a list of European nations registrants can visit:
The 26 Schengen Nations – Aug 2018
Not good enough. We need to kill HR 5150 so this FASCIST law can no longer be enforced.
They need to place a Privacy Act request with DHS pronto to get to the bottom of this. Not FOIA, but Privacy Act. At the same time, engage any elected official who will assist with this matter.
So he had a valid passport that had not been revoked previously? From previous experiences, it was that upon returning to the good ole US, they would send you a revocation letter. Did he do anything wrong? Doesn’t sound like it to me. He went above and beyond to give the 21 day notice and was treated like a terrorist, trying to board a plane with his wife. What an embarrassment and scare that must have been for him and his wife. This registry is the grossest thing that ever existed, and those who support it and make up more and more rules should be punished to the extreme. Nuremberg Trials come to mind. Tiered Registry, mu A%^*. This has to go!!!!!
How many Forrest Gumps work in our government? Stupid is as stupid does and these tyrants are beyond stupid. How many registrants go overseas and commit crimes, let alone one sexual in nature? How many tyrants go overseas and commit sexual crimes than blaming it on registrants? Chris Smith where you been since your the expert in sex trafficking.
But remember, it’s totally not punishment.
There seems to be a new level of harassment against any RSO leaving the USA now. The 21 day required warning gives them the necessary time to cancel passports. Some unusual events happened at the airport while I was leaving the USA late last year. I will eventually explain on the international thread but don’t feel safe in revealing my story on an open forum. Let’s just say that I suspect I was extremely lucky and have no intentions of returning to the USA till these laws are gone. I suspect that future RSOs will need to sneak into Mexico or take a small boat to Bahamas in order to leave the USA. I also expect our passports to eventually be revoked like in Australia. It won’t be punishment of course …
My experience with this process demonstrated that the different parts of the government responsible for issuing, revoking, and associated passport functions do not communicate with each other well, and that they do not yet have a unified system for checking passports at point of entries as relates to the registry/IML.
I did just as was suggested – knowing I was required to have a marked passport I submitted mine for early renewal. Instead of the proper marked passport they just sent a regular one. Apparently the people that issue passports don’t have a fully updated database and/or don’t check against it when issuing passports.
In the end I received a revocation letter and had to do it all over again. At that point I discovered that what went wrong the first time I tried to get the IML passport was that I did not specifically request a marked passport and just assumed they’d issue one.
My point, if you’re going to do an early renewal to get an IML passport you must specifically ask for a passport compliant with the IML marking requirement or you might not get it.
And no, in spite of admitting they made a mistake when issuing the unmarked passport to me, they will not issue a refund.
Hey there, Janice,
I wanted to know if ACSOL is planning on filing another lawsuit against International Megan’s Law, just as you did when the law first went into effect ~half a decade ago. (I remember somewhat that when the first lawsuit wasn’t successful, you had expressed with grand confidence that one day in the future ACSOL will do it again.)
Obviously they already knew he is a registered person, otherwise, why would they storm the plane to remove him? How is a marked passport going to change anything? Freaking stupid.
What a joke. America is a Nazi, fascist, joke. The country is broken apart, 1/3 of Americans have a criminal record, and over a million sex offenders in this country. Each day we get closer to a civil war because incompetent politicians can’t unite our country together and move forward/make progress. Again, America is a joke!
“Due to this incident, it is highly recommended that registrants covered by the IML who lack a unique identifier in their passports, apply for a new passport with a unique identifier in order to prevent a similar experience,” stated Bellucci.
How about renewing the suit to get rid of this requirement?
Another California sex offender pretending to be a normal resident, I can’t believe people forced to register are still trying to live a normal life while on the registry.
Once your placed on Megan’s law your nolonger a normal person.
All that time and money this couple wasted on trying to leave the country they could of helped ACSOL spread awareness about the endless punishment of Megan’s law, and
I highly doubt he didn’t know his passport was revoked, I’ve never been sent any kind of notification about changes to my 290 registration requirements and I haven’t violated any of them yet but you can’t knock the guy for trying.
Good luck
Without this “unique identifier” on ones passport, you get denied leaving the country. With it, you get denied at the airport of your destination. Ugh. I just need a vacation.
Maybe the 1st step is to connect the IML to the tiered registry. Tier 1 and 2 that have an exit off the registry shouldn’t have to have a mark. Not saying that tier 3 should, but I can see their concern with SVPs, serial offenders and those falling under lifetime parole. I know this is not the ultimate answer since there are still states that have only lifetime registration, but I’m spitballing.
This whole thing really points out how utterly useless the passport screening is that we all go through when entering the international terminal. Obviously their scanners are not connected to the database to let them know if a passport is valid or not, or they wouldn’t have even let the guy get on the plane.
Curious what happened between his initial TSA passport screening and when they stormed the plane to tip them off that he didn’t have a marked passport.
⭐⭐ EVERY Registrant who travels overseas should submit a Privacy Act request to the US Marshals Service for any information (about himself/herself) that was sent to a foreign country – including a copy of any “Green Notice” that was sent. ⭐⭐
If EACH of us does this, EVERY time we travel overseas, it will become an enormous pain-in-the-ass burden for the federal harassment bureaucrats. ⭐⭐
(Yes, perhaps it is just throwing sand in the gears of the Registry machine, but it’s better to do something small than do nothing at all!) ⭐⭐
(FWIW: I received the revocation letter two or three months after returning home from an overseas trip. And, as I recall, the letter was slow to arrive because it was dated 3 weeks prior to the date that I received it. Clearly, that allows a pretty big window of time between when a passport is designated “revoked” in the Federal system and when the passport holder actually receives notification of the passport’s revoked status.)
@ Hyperbole: Umm, not sure they “stormed the plane.” (Nor do I recall any mention of full riot/SWAT gear, guns drawn, military-style assault weapons, flash-bang gernades, etc.)
While not defending the asshats, I suspect it was more along the lines of “There was a problem with your passport, sir. You’ll need to come with us.”
How do you request an IML passport?
Before people go shipping their passports off for reissuing with the stamp, and possibly get one back with no stamp and lose more money in an effort to do the right thing, I am going to suggest people go to a local passport agency office if there is one in their local area to do so. Here is where you can find one around the country: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/passports/get-fast/passport-agencies.html
LA, SF, and SD, CA all have these offices which may be the first step for @Janice, et al, to reach out and get specs on getting stamped passports either in person or know they will be issued with it. In person visits will be more beneficial I believe than an email or phone call.
There are rules for using the office and when travel is supposed to happen; however, I believe this is a better first step to getting the correct passport than mailing it in hopes of DoS doing the right work they need to be doing.
@IL Contact – there is one in Chicago where you can only give three days notice and they really prefer folks who have travel rapidly upcoming to use the office. This might fit into your travel paradigm. You may want to reach out in person to them at the office to help solve your question.
How would this work for dual citizens? I know you have to leave the US on a US passport, but once you board the plane, haven’t you technically left the US?
Could someone challenge this by saying you’re also x citizen and you’re being unlawfully detained?
Long shot but I’m genuinely curious
I have to wonder if travel insurance would’ve covered the associated flight costs (and more?) due to the removal from the plane and passport revocation in person? I’ve not purchased travel insurance before, and some one here may know more, but it is something I wonder. Unless it is covered in the fine print somehow, I’d think it is possible a payment is due to the travelers?