- Home
- International Meagan’s Law (HB-4573)
Dear Members and Supporters,
Update Dec 17, 2014: “The Senate stands adjourned until Tuesday January 6, 2015,”
So most likely in 2015 we will again need to oppose the "International Meagan's Law", but for now it is a dead bill.
International Meagan’s Law (H.R.4573) had been winding its way through congress. It passed the house in July and had just been placed into calendars in the Senate. But the Senate adjourned so the bill died. But expect a new attempt to pass another bad bill like this one sometime next year. Everyone needs to stay alert next year for other bills like it and to be prepared to contact your Congressional Representatives to oppose badly written bills like this one.
This bill would make passports for registrants valid for 1 year (instead of 10). The law would require them to report their travel itinerary directly to the department responsible 21 days prior to international travel. Failure to do so is cause for being prosecuted for “failure to register.” This law will apply to all registrants, regardless of whether their state requires them to submit travel information or not. Every time a they advise their registry office of travel an INTERPOL alert will be put on the passport warning the destination country that the registrant is likely there to commit a crime. This bill (HR4573) has nothing to do with risk factors. Immigration will meet them at the destination airport and send them back home. We received a call on the support line of this occurring last Christmas with a family traveling to the Dominican Republic. They were escorted to a private room at the airport and spent the night there. The next morning the family was put on an airplane and sent back to their originating airport. Per the caller they were never told anything.
The length of time that this law (HR 4573) will apply to each registrant will be governed by SORNA tiers, not by state law. Thus, if a citizen’s duty to register would have expired after 10 or 15 years, this time can be extended under International Megan’s Law to match the SORNA tiers. For most registrants this will mean 25 years or life.
The full text of this law can be read at: https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/4573/all-actions-with-amendments
While ICE and US Marshals have *already* been implementing some of these policies against registered citizens, they are doing so under an administrative directive less stringent than the proposed International Meagan’s Law.
The only hope of defeating this bill and begin educating is if every individual would contact their Senator. Please include the following paragraph in your message:
According to the NCMEC, there are 774,600 men, women and children (young as 6, 8 and 10 in some states) required to register. One-third of those are juvenile on children situations. The re-offense rate for another sexual offense is very low. Only the statistic for murder is lower. Educated and informed decisions are essential here. The number of registrants adjudicated for true “child sex trafficking” is maybe 1% but this bill (H.R.4573) has the potential to impact over “3 MILLION registrant family members” as it targets all registrants as a wholesale bill. 95% of new sex crimes are committed by those not on any registry. Current restrictions already make it difficult for registrant families to visit parks and school functions together. Academics advise that for an individual to successfully reintegrate the following are necessary: a job, a place to live and a “positive” support system. Family activities are a part of that support system and affects each person. Please oppose H.R.4573 the "International Meagan's Law".
Please stand up! If passed this bill will most likely never be changed and chances are it will have more things added in the future.
Use the link provided to determine your US Senator if you don’t already know. We need as many people as possible to make contact by phone, email, or snail mail. Please remember that snail mail is NOT delivered directly to the legislator's office. It is delivered to a facility off-site and screened prior to being forwarded. This process takes about two weeks so, a phone call or email would serve our purpose better. The person who takes your call will be very nice and write out everything you want to convey.
12-12-2014 Washington DC:
12/11/2014 Senate Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 645.
Time for folks to be contacting Senators to kill the bill: HR4573 House Bill 4573
12/11/2014 Senate Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 645.
Time for folks to be contacting Senators to kill the bill: HR4573 House Bill 4573