Restricting Freedom of Movement Is a Favorite Tool for Repressive Regimes

Source: reason.com 8/26/24 Needing permission to travel hands a dangerous tool to authoritarians. When you don’t like the rules—or rulers—where you live, and trying to change things isn’t worth the time, effort, or danger, one good response is to get the hell out. Find someplace that’s more to your taste by voting for something different with your feet. But what if the local powers-that-be don’t want dissidents to go and limit paths to exit? A new report says that’s exactly what many governments around the world are doing with restrictions…

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Action Alert: International Megan’s Law (IML) failed victims of sexual abuse overseas as federal agent sexually abuses children in the Philippines

Source: floridaactioncommittee.org 12/21/22 International Megan’s Law to Prevent Child Exploitation and Other Sexual Crimes Through Advanced Notification of Traveling Sex Offenders (IML) was supposed to be a tool for the federal government to notify other countries regarding the international travel of sex offenders. In theory, it was supposed to authorize federal agents to provide warnings in the form of a “green notice” to the receiving country. By providing this notice, the receiving country could protect their children from sexual abuse. The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Smith said, “With its…

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F. Allen “Tex” Harris Award for [tighter rules for registrant passport application]

Source: afsa.org  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…

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House overwhelmingly passes Smith’s newest legislation to combat human trafficking

Source: insidernj.com 7/26/22 WASHINGTON—Ahead of this Saturday’s World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, the House of Representatives today overwhelmingly passed critical anti-trafficking legislation—the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022—authored by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) together with Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) in a strong bipartisan vote of 401-20. … “Today’s legislation will also reauthorize the amazing work being done by Homeland Security’s Angel Watch Center—a project mandated by my International Megan’s Law (IML) enacted in 2016,” said Smith, Co-chair of the Human Trafficking Caucus, which he…

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New Report Finds IML Negatively Impacts Mobility of Registrants

The International Megan’s Law (IML) has negatively impacted registrants’ mobility across five dimensions, according to a newly released academic report.  The dimensions are legally, bureaucratically, societally, subjectively and relationally.  An advanced copy of that report can be viewed using the link below. According to the 200-page report, the IML is one part of a U.S. sex offence apparatus that continues to progress towards more unforgiving and counterproductive ends.  The IML is the latest integration of domestic crime control databases with international mobility control databases exemplifies a growing immigration control industry…

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