Call To Action: State Department to Brand Passports

This is an important call to action.

We urge members to contact the US State Department and their Legislators in response to the State Department’s notice that they will be implementing the unique identifier provision of the recently enacted International Megan’s Law.

The text of the notice can be found here: https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-09-02/html/2016-21087.htm

In summary, it states;

The final rule incorporates statutory passport denial and revocation requirements for certain covered sex offenders under the IML

Sec.  51.60  Denial and restriction of passports.
(a)
    (4) The applicant is a covered sex offender as defined in 42 U.S.C.
16935a, unless the passport, no matter the type, contains the
conspicuous identifier placed by the Department as required by 22
U.S.C. 212b.

(g) The Department shall not issue a passport card to an applicant
who is a covered sex offender as defined in 42 U.S.C. 16935a.

We urge members to contact the Notice’s author, Sen. Senior Advisor David T. Donahue at 202-647-9584 as well as your State Senators and Representatives, which can be found here;

For Senators: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

For Representatives: http://www.house.gov/representatives/

Paul Rigney of RegistrantTAG.org prepared the following statement, which you can paraphrase (please do not use it word-for-word) when preparing your communication.

“I (we) protest the State Department’s implementation of International Megan’s Law (IML) and the specific provision for a unique identifier on American Citizen’s passports. The notification provisions and the Passport Identifier marking the passport holder as a registered sex offender puts the lives of American citizens and their families in danger when traveling to foreign countries. As such, those Americans will be designated (by their own government) as unworthy of the protections afforded U.S. Citizens and invite abuses at the hands of foreign governments. So too will their families who accompany them be subjected to mistreatment by foreign governments whose standards may fall below those of the U.S. Reports already confirm American citizens and families have been harassed, threatened, items stolen, and travel plans destroyed by the current Angel Watch alert system.

The passport mark will further identify the holder as a former offender to any who require passports in commerce, such as hotels and banks, who may also use this information as a means to extort or threaten the passport holder.

Neither the notification or the passport mark will serve any role in curbing or curtailing child sexual exploitation as has been noted by leading experts. Instead, it will stifle legitimate travel, split families apart and prevent lawful international business activities.

Statistics indicate, not only a low rate of re offense for former offenders, but that offenses are overwhelming committed by those not on sex offender registries.”