NOTE: This article is buried on this long page. You will need to scroll down to the fourth article entitled “F. Allen “Tex” Harris Award for Constructive Dissent by a Foreign Service Specialist“
While serving as chief of the Criminal Investigative Liaison Branch of the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) in 2018, Supervisory Special Agent Steven May was alerted by interagency partners to a significant gap in the implementation of a law designed to protect children from sex offenders. Alarmed, he got to work and tirelessly advocated to amend department policies.
International Megan’s Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders, known as IML, requires the State Department to include a unique identifier in the passports of registered sex offenders covered under the law based on their conviction for a sex offense against a minor. When an offender travels internationally, this identifier enables the U.S. Marshals Service National Sex Offender Targeting Center (NSOTC) to inform destination countries, and DSS to notify regional security officers.
Although IML specifically authorizes the department to ask passport applicants their sex offender registration status to identify who is covered by the law, Mr. May learned that application forms currently do not include this question. Further, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) does not have the capacity to preemptively check the estimated 900,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S. to determine who is covered by IML. Counterparts in DHS’ Angel Watch Center (AWC) indicated to Mr. May that, if checked, as many as 500,000 of those individuals have convictions against children and would therefore require a unique passport identifier. By asking the question of applicants, AWC could focus on offenders most likely to travel.
Read the full article (see note above about the buried article)
“Since the law was implemented in 2017, NSOTC and AWC have urged the department to include the question of sex offender registration status on the passport application form, as intended by the IML authors. Instead, Mr. May found that the department actively denied the request for years, suggesting that anyone honest enough to answer such a question would also volunteer their registration status on the form without being asked”
So if someone doesn’t volunteer information they don’t have to, they’re being dishonest? It’s like SOT therapists telling people they should be honest about there offense to everyone they come into contact with. With that dumb logic, I guess I should tell my mailman that I’m a registered sex offender.
“Mr. May hopes that further action will follow. “To save kids from sexual assault and exploitation, yes, I think adding an extra page to passport applications would be worth it,” he says.
Your kidding right? US Marshalls send out Interpol notices, IML sends alerts, flight manifests know about every registrant….so the information is getting out there. What difference does it make if an applicant says whether or not they are registered as a sex offender. You guys already know! Just because the state dept can’t get the mark on fast enough because registrants aren’t being “honest” enough to volunteer that info, is the fault of your bureaucratic system. Besides, you guys say the mark should have no bearing on a registrants right to travel. And we’re allowed to sue the feds if we’re denied entry into a country because of the mark. But you also want to “save kids from sexual assault and exploitation” by getting countries to deny us entry because of the mark. You guys in government are talk out of both sides of your mouth
“Steven May is currently based in London where he works as the deputy regional security officer. He previously served in Embassy Baghdad from 2020 to 2022, most recently as chief of two branches: embassy security forces, and investigations and vetting”
Figures he was part of that imperialistic project. How many Iraqi children have you saved lately, Mr. May? How many children were sexually abused in Iraq as the result of that war & invasion?
“….suggesting that anyone honest enough to answer such a question would also volunteer their registration status on the form without being asked.”
I am always amazed by what we Registrants are supposed to magically know!! Honestly, even the crap we initials on our Registration forms has become like the small print on a contract or the “terms of service” for a smartphone app. They’re getting too complex and confusing for a normal person of average intelligence and education to make sense of….. So we just throw up our hands and say/think to ourselves, “Whatever? 🙄”
And now some State Dept. dumbass wants us to volunteer unrequested information without notification or instructions?? Really??! 🤨
And did Mr. Dumbass even bother to research the statistics regarding sexual offences committed by Registrants in foreign countries??
Of course not!!
As always – and as WE all know – the vast majority of child sexual abuse cases are committed by individuals not listed on any registry. Family members, coaches, teachers, clergy, etc. 🙄
QUICK SURVEY: Who here willingly divulges any information to any law enforcement agency if not required to do so?? 🙄
Oh, so NOW it’s OUR responsibility to do the Government’s job for them while they take all the credit for falsely protecting children. What kind of magical thinking is this?
Leave it up to some pencil pusher with a savior complex to claim he’s “saving the day” by making hay out of this. Thing is, IML will never be an effective law in prevention because it assumes that everyone with a sex offense is messed up in the head and can’t be trusted around children. This is this misguided foundation they built their lies upon and continue to pass new “initiatives” with.
Being labeled a sex offender is wrongful imprisonment IF you’re innocent of any and everything the registry attempts to prevent.
I’m actually pretty concerned about this addition and not for myself because I can check no. I’m concerned for everyone else though. If they add this there should be a lawsuit here’s why:
First, lying on that question on a government form is likely a materially false statement and would be subject to 18 U.S. Code § 1001. Just another reason to lock a registrant up.
Second, what the question really mean? Do you check the box if you registered once in a state that never removes you like Florida even if you are not really required to register there but are off the registry where you actually live? Do you just say yes and have your passport marked just to make sure you don’t get arrested for lying? Maybe for some checking the yes box is obvious but for many, especially older convictions not so much.
This would be just like the new federal SORNA rules it seems. You have to figure out if it applies and take your chances or risk a federal offense for lying?
The whole intention of protecting children from human sex trafficking is nothing more than a Jedi mind trick.
Talk about waste and fraud!
My question would be, how the hell would I know if I’m “covered”
I don’t live in US Jurisdiction, NY claims they have Jurisdiction, I haven’t lived, worked or went to school in the US for years.
It just seems like a trap.
I noticed it let’s me change my gender to X on the passport form now. Not sure how that works.
kinda highly doubt I could get a visa if my gender were an X.