UPDATED WITH VOTE: WASHINGTON — The U.S. House of Representatives today passed legislation to extend Megan’s Law beyond American borders.
The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (R-4th Dist.), would require the U.S. to tell other countries when convicted sex offenders are traveling there. It would also try to set up reciprocal notification systems so the U.S. is told when convicted sex offenders travel to this country. A 2010 Government Accountability Office report said that at least 4,500 U.S. passports went to registered sex offenders in fiscal year 2008. Full Article
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US Congress House Bill 515
Status: (Introduced) 2015-01-22 – Referred to House Judiciary
Bill Title: To protect children from exploitation, especially sex trafficking in tourism, by providing advance notice of intended travel by registered child-sex offenders outside the United States to the government of the country of destination, requesting foreign governments to notify the United States when a known child-sex offender is seeking to enter the United States, and for other purposes.
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Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 645.
Type of Action: Calendars
Action By: Senate
https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/4573
Contacting your Senator:
http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
Could we get some legal minds to chime in, because a lot of these comments are pure speculation and someone that can speak “legal” talk could clear a lot of this up. Just my thoughts. Does the carsol or national organization have people that focus on these international b.s. laws? Again , class action……….. Let’s go people, time for this train to leave the station!
Could you guys please stop the conspiracy babble and start looking toward answers. All some of you do is complain and whine. Stop it! Let’s turn this forum into constructive thought, we all know its screwed up, pointing it out every comment doesn’t change it. Let’s combine forces and look for solutions.
For everyone who is actively trying to make a difference with registration laws and issues–for those are doing more than venting–you really should check out this link:
http://congress-courts-legislation.blogspot.com/2015/01/the-114th-congress-begins-today-january.html
Rep. Smith is nothing if not persistent. The is the how manieth time he has thrown this out there? It would appear that all this current bill does is formalize the procedure currently in practice. And with that makes it a tangible target in a court room.
If you go back all the way to the first iteration of this so called International Megan’s Law, like 2008 or so, it contained provisions where registrants permanently living abroad had to check in (in person) at a US Embassy in the foreign country (typically in the capital) every 6 months or so. This could be a day-long trip.
Insanity. But if it saves one child…
With Chris Smith’s Nazi scheme to harness the free movement of his despised class of registrants, Smith vainly publically invokes Christianity while propagandizing registrants as a worldwide threat that he is saving the world from, just as Hitler did with Jews in Germany. Gypsies, political opposition, registrants, communists, etc were all targets, although I believe Hitler only stopped the Jews from leaving Nazi Germany. Chris Smith is relentless in his quest to spread his Nazism ( IML to box in his despised class of registrants ) and War on Women ( trying to outlaw abortion in foreign countries ). Chris Smith is a clearinghouse for legislation and is padding his pockets left and right with money I would imagine from the victims rights movement and rightwing Nannystaters like himself, which he has every right to do. But, lets keep in mind this guy is in it for the money and power and can’t possibly believe U.S. registrants who account for under 2% of new sex crimes would be any other proportion responsible for international sex crimes. This Nazi is ranked fifth for getting out the most bills in all of Congress. So if the initial HB1515 becomes law, look for many more amendments with new arbitrarily restrictive additions, as if the initial one is not harsh enough.
I think it congress have it their way. RSO will not be able to even leave their own STATES for life.
It already becoming an hardship just LEAVING the state.
Federal AWA laws applies to you once you leave the state line.
This appears to be a done deal. It will easily pass in the Senate, and Obama will easily sign this bill, probably with huge hoopla proclaiming “bipartisanship at last!”
The minute his signature goes on the bill, Janice should be at the Federal Court with a complaint and an injunction request post haste. Let’s pony up for THIS fight.
Count me in with financial support for a class action suit. While it might be difficult to stop this government run-amok from providing a notification, the verbiage reportedly used thus far in these notifications is entirely without evidence to support the claim that the person may be traveling in order to commit a sex crime. Standardized form letters to this effect going out in advance of travel for every RC regardless of the individual circumstances surely constitutes an improper ex post facto restraint of freedom to travel (because of the biased and inflammatory language, containing the obvious intent to prevent the RC from being allowed entry). I believe this is ripe for lawsuit, especially if it becomes codified and is used (as it will be) without restraint or backed by evidence as to the intent of the traveler.
This law will not help anyone. How ignorant are these agencies? A sex crime will still happen and it won’t be from a 290 registrant. If someone wants to take the risk they will without regard to consequence if not already in the system. Another BS money sucking tactic that gives false security. Our government is not to bright.
I know this is a junk bill, however, we need to get on the keyboard and contact our representatives and use the opportunity to present the truth to these people. I know a number of them do not want to hear the facts however, there is a good chance we could change some minds. It would be helpful, if someone with excellent writing skills, would develop a short template with key facts so RC/family can use to write good letters/emails.
I found a link somewhere on this website to a D.O.J. or other federal agencies website that showed a graph of how many notifications were sent to different countries and how many RSOs had actually been refused entry to those countries as a result of the notification. It showed that the number actually refused entry was relatively small (something like 5%-10%, as I recall).
So that website’s information seemed quite different from the anecdotal information being supplied here by RSOs.
I’ll try to find the link.
P.S.: But don’t get me wrong – I am 100% opposed to this and all the million-and-one add-on BS restrictions the politicians keep coming up with. It needs to STOP!
The next step will be confinement to your state. Its the next logical step as they seem to be able to do anything to us.
What Americans, including RSO’s, have forgotten or, most likely, never been taught, is that the Federal government has no jurisdictions with the fifty states except for magazines, forts or other buildings/land that have been ceded to the feds by the states. No one is challenging AWA or anything else on these grounds.
http://home.hiwaay.net/~becraft/FEDJurisdiction.html
http://www.tax-freedom.com/ta34003.htm
Endless amendments to the AWA seem to come in the form of explicit word replacement within sentences of undefined context. It’s difficult to know what amendments are made to the AWA when the amendments to the AWA come in the form of …….replace the word ‘should’ with ‘shouldn’t’ in this sentence and replace ’10 years’ with ‘lifetime’ in that sentence and the sentence being amended is not explicitly stated what it will look like or what the old sentence being replaced said in the first place. This is the way AWA gets amended and I see no reason IML would not be amended in a likewise fashion. It requires a forensic examination to even know whats been done when it gets ramped up, and ramping up is certainly what these amendments are about, as I am sure these amendments are not corrections of typing errors or civil rights improvements for registrants.
The IML, like the AWA is a minimum standard, which means it only sets a minimum harshness level. It does not define a maximum harshness level, so that is unlimited. Florida is example of taking the AWA minimum and running with it. The IML does not improve anything and does not stop the notices being sent on non-‘AWA enumerated’ offense convicts. The authority to send notices on any RSO or anyone otherwise is not precluded by the IML, as stated in the IML. Just like the AWA sets a minimum, so does IML. And lets not forget IML will get amended endlessly like AWA does.
AWA is a minimum set and doesn’t set a maximum. In the case of California requiring registration for indecent exposure, if California did become an AWA state, indecent exposure would still require registration. The only thing that would change is all the other draconian parts of AWA would be added. California’s harsh time frame would not change either. No one not mentioned in AWA would come off the registry. Is there actually a state that is AWA that does not require registration for indecent exposure? If so, I’d like to know what state or states are like that. I understand a state like that could hypothetically exist.
IML mentions the AWA time frame. I could imagine part of one of the first amendments to IML being that if a registrant is not in an AWA state, then they do not get a AWA time frame and then the default time frame is lifetime.
But, I do see some positive things on the horizon. John Roberts endorsed ObamaCare. So this means the ‘Umpire’ is open-minded and maybe will vote to overturn 2003 SCOTUS decision which today would yield a different result. It shows Roberts has an open mind. Then, the other 2 liberals who voted in dissent who are still on the court, Ginsburg and Breyer hopefully haven’t changed their minds and would feel even stronger that registration is punishment with todays circumstances. Just because Ginsburg and Breyer voted in favor of RSO civil confinement, I don’t think they are disqualified from being liberals, but you could make that case.
Another Bill being introduced. Not only will registrants be forced to remain in the US, but they’ll no longer be able to petition foreign born family members from living in the US, effectively destroying how many families in the process..
1-31-2015 Washington DC:
H.R.52 – Save America Comprehensive Immigration Act of 2015 has been introduced by Rep Jackson-Lee of TX.
There is no doubt this bill is complicated, as are the circumstances of any RSO who would be petitioning to bring his/her family to the U.S., but it appears this bill adds unnecessary roadblocks to hamper the petitioning process. The roadblocks are seen here. From the bill:
Authorizes the Secretary of Homeland Security (Secretary in the rest of this bill) to deny a family-based immigration petition by a U.S. petitioner for an alien spouse or child if:
(1) the petitioner is on the national sex offender registry for a conviction that resulted in more than one year’s imprisonment,
(2) the petitioner has failed to rebut such information within 90 days, and
(3) granting the petition would put a spouse or child beneficiary in danger of sexual abuse.
One of the purposes of this bill is to prevent a RSO from petitioning to bring a child or a woman with a child, for the wrong purposes; that is understandable. So to say the bill is BAD would be a mistake, it seems the timelines are unreasonable given U.S. RSOs are very likely strapped for money to hire lawyers.
Personally a recommendation for appointment of counsel provision seems appropriate, but is missing from the bill. And more importantly to apply all such restrictions to anyone with other crime types. Human trafficking crimes are committed by all types of folks and felons.
So its time to review the bill and see if you find other problems, then voice them to your representatives in Washington DC. Hopefully, with counsel, a RSO’s family can be brought to the U.S. and enjoy life here….
http://congress-courts-legislation.blogspot.com/2015/01/alert-bill-in-us-congress-affecting.html
Dave in the Philippines
I heard that these laws were passed in two more commitiys