International Megan’s Law to Prevent Demand for Child Sex Trafficking
by Representative Christopher H. SmithPosted on 2015-01-26
SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Royce for
yielding me this time, and I thank him for his leadership and for
marking this bill up in the last Congress. We went through it in
regular order. Chairman Royce, Eliot Engel, and staff were outstanding.
I also want to thank Bob Goodlatte, who has been a very strong
proponent of this legislation, as well as Albio Sires, who is the chief
Democratic sponsor, and our other cosponsors: Mrs. Hartzler, Carolyn
Maloney, Mrs. Wagner, Mr. Pittenger, Mr. Poe of Texas, Ms. McCollum,
and Mr. Yoho.
Mr. Speaker, there is no higher duty or responsibility of government
than to protect children from violence and predatory behavior. We have
a duty to protect the weakest and the most vulnerable. The
International Megan's Law to Prevent Demand for Child Sex Trafficking,
H.R. 515, will protect children from child sex tourism by notifying
destination countries when convicted pedophiles plan to travel. And to
protect American children, the bill encourages the President to use
bilateral agreements and assistance to establish reciprocal
notification so we will know when convicted child sex offenders are
coming here.
Mr. Speaker, I actually got the idea of International Megan's Law in
a conversation with a Trafficking in Persons delegation from Thailand
during a meeting in my office in 2007. I asked the Thai officials what
would they do if we were to notify them of travel by a convicted
pedophile. Each of the dozen officials said they would bar entry into
their nation of such a predator.
Today will mark the third time in 8 years that this bill has passed
the House--and I do hope it will pass--with strong support from both
sides of the aisle, the second in its present, more streamlined form.
The only change in this version is an additional clause in 8(c)
underscoring the fine investigatory work of the Department of Homeland
Security in the area of child exploitation and Congress' support for
its continuance in Angel Watch, as well as in the investigations of the
Cyber Crimes Center.
This provision is not intended to supersede notification requirements
elsewhere in the bill.
I am encouraged that the Senate has signaled its support and
willingness to improve commonsense U.S. procedures preventing the sex
trafficking of children by high-risk predators. I look forward to
working with our colleagues in the other body.
Mr. Speaker, child sex predators thrive on secrecy, a secrecy that
allows them to commit heinous crimes against children. In 1994, a young
girl from my district was lured into the home of a convicted pedophile
who lived across the street from her. Megan Kanka, 7, was raped and
murdered. No one, including Megan's parents, knew that their neighbor
had been convicted of child sexual assault. The outrage over this
tragedy led to the enactment of Megan's Laws--public sex offender
registries--in every State in the country.
It is imperative that we take the lessons we have learned on how to
protect our children from known child sex predators within our borders
and expand those protections globally.
Mr. Speaker, a deeply disturbing 2010 report by the GAO, entitled
``Current Situation Results in Thousands of Passports Issued to
Registered Sex Offenders,'' found that at least 4,500 U.S. passports
were issued to registered sex offenders in fiscal year 2008 alone.
Meanwhile, law enforcement and media reports continue to document
Americans on the U.S. sex offender registries who were caught sexually
abusing children in East Asia, Central and South America, and elsewhere
in the world. It is the same horror movie replayed over and over.
Homeland Security's Angel Watch program has been doing an outstanding
job in alerting countries about potential danger from American sex
offenders. H.R. 515 would codify and streamline this excellent program,
ensuring that actionable information about child sex offender travel
actually gets to the destination country in time for those countries to
assess the potential dangers and respond appropriately, whether that is
to allow entry, deny entry or a visa, monitor travel, or limit travel.
Once notified, nations are empowered to take protective action.
International Megan's Law also directs the President to include
guidance in diplomacy, training, and technical assistance abroad on how
other countries can create their own public or private sex offender
registries similar to what we have in the United States, and how we can
use these registries to alert the United States when a child sex
offender is intending to travel here to abuse our children. The goal is
reciprocity, reciprocal notice to protect children at home and abroad
from known sex offenders.
I personally have spoken to foreign officials and nongovernment
representatives who have asked me when the United States Congress is
going to do something about American sex offenders who are traveling to
their country to rape their children. I hear this especially in the
developing world. H.R. 515, the International Megan's Law to Prevent
Demand for Child Sex Trafficking, is a serious response to that
question.
I would also point out parenthetically, as the Special Representative
for Combating Trafficking at the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe's Parliamentary Assembly last year, we got passed
a resolution calling for this kind of noticing country to country so
the secrecy is taken out of sex tourism designed to exploit and abuse
children.