ACSOL: 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 presenting new dangers of grave concern.
An important finding within the report is that there is a wide gulf between the government discourse on IML and registrants’ experiences of the law. For example, the number of people in the U.S. convicted of child sex exploitation overseas has actually diminished after passage of the IML from a high of 32 convictions in 2013 to a low of 3 convictions in 2018.
The report includes a few dozen stories of registrants directly affected by the IML in their personal and/or professional lives. For example, one registrant was unable to attend her son’s graduation in another country while another registrant was unable to assist his wife after surgery. Additional registrants were harmed in their business activities, including one registrant who lost his business because he could no longer travel overseas.
“ACSOL thanks the author of this report for her dedication to an important, but unpopular, topic,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “The information in this report provides context for the IML including its failure to achieve its intended result while harming both registrants and their families.”
What a valuable dissertation. Read it! It’ll make you mad, as it should.
We have property overseas. We are no longer able to visit because of my partner being a registrant, despite his having traveled there for YEARS without incident. We are attempting to sell that property, but have been unable to and pay THOUSANDS of dollars each year in HOA and taxes. Luckily, we have been able to manage, but it is coming to a place where we may just have to cut our losses. It’s bizarre that there is no way out of this.