HR 5138 RFS
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE AND TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘International Megan’s Law of 2010’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title and table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Findings and declaration of purposes. 
Sec. 3. Definitions. 
Sec. 4. Sex offender travel reporting requirement. 
Sec. 5. Foreign registration requirement for sex offenders. 
Sec. 6. International Sex Offender Travel Center. 
Sec. 7. Center sex offender travel guidelines. 
Sec. 8. Authority to restrict passports. 
Sec. 9. Immunity for good faith conduct. 
Sec. 10. Sense of Congress provisions. 
Sec. 11. Enhancing the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. 
Sec. 12. Special report on international mechanisms related to traveling child 
sex offenders. 
Sec. 13. Assistance to foreign countries to meet minimum standards for the 
elimination of trafficking. 
Sec. 14. Congressional reports. 
Sec. 15. Authorization of appropriations. 
Sec. 16. Budget compliance. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND DECLARATION OF PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 
(1) Megan Nicole Kanka, who was 7 years old, 
was abducted, sexually assaulted, and murdered in 
1994, in the State of New Jersey by a violent pred-
ator living across the street from her home. Unbe-
knownst to Megan Kanka and her family, he had 
been convicted previously of a sex offense against a 
child. 
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(2) In 1996, Congress adopted Megan’s Law 
(Public Law 104–145) as a means to encourage 
States to protect children by identifying the where-
abouts of sex offenders and providing the means to 
monitor their activities. 
(3) The sexual exploitation of minors is a global 
phenomenon. The International Labour Organiza-
tion estimates that 1.8 million children worldwide 
are exploited each year through prostitution and 
pornography. 
(4) According to End Child Prostitution, Child 
Pornography and Trafficking in Children for Sexual 
Purposes (ECPAT International), all children are 
adversely affected by being commercially sexually ex-
ploited. Commercial sexual exploitation can result in 
serious, lifelong, even life-threatening consequences 
for the physical, psychological, spiritual, emotional 
and social development and well-being of a child. 
(5) ECPAT International reports that children 
who are commercially sexually exploited are at great 
risk of contracting HIV or AIDS and are unlikely to 
receive adequate medical care. These children are 
also at great risk of further physical violence—those 
who make an attempt to escape or counter their 
abuse may be severely injured or killed. The psycho-
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logical effects of child sexual exploitation and threats 
usually plague the victims for the rest of their lives. 
(6) ECPAT International further reports that 
children who have been exploited typically report 
feelings of shame, guilt, and low self-esteem. Some 
children do not believe they are worthy of rescue; 
some suffer from stigmatization or the knowledge 
that they were betrayed by someone whom they had 
trusted; others suffer from nightmares, sleepless-
ness, hopelessness, and depression—reactions similar 
to those exhibited in victims of torture. To cope, 
some children attempt suicide or turn to substance 
abuse. Many find it difficult to reintegrate success-
fully into society once they become adults. 
(7) According to ECPAT International, child 
sex tourism is a specific form of child prostitution 
and is a developing phenomenon. Child sex tourism 
is defined as the commercial sexual exploitation of 
children by people who travel from one place to an-
other and there engage in sexual acts with minors. 
This type of exploitation can occur anywhere in the 
world and no country or tourism destination is im-
mune. 
(8) According to research conducted by The 
Protection Project of The Johns Hopkins University 
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Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International 
Studies, sex tourists from the United States who 
target children form a significant percentage of child 
sex tourists in some of the most significant destina-
tion countries for child sex tourism. 
(9) According to the National Center for Miss-
ing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), most victims 
of sex offenders are minors. 
(10) Media reports indicate that known sex of-
fenders who have committed crimes against children 
are traveling internationally, and that the criminal 
background of such individuals may not be known to 
local law enforcement prior to their arrival. For ex-
ample, in April 2008, a United States registered sex 
offender received a prison sentence for engaging in 
illicit sexual activity with a 15-year-old United 
States citizen girl in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, 
Mexico in exchange for money and crack cocaine. 
(11) United States Immigration and Customs 
Enforcement (ICE) has taken a leading role in the 
fight against the sexual exploitation of minors 
abroad, in cooperation with other United States 
agencies, law enforcement from other countries, 
INTERPOL, and nongovernmental organizations. In 
addition to discovering evidence of and investigating 
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child sex crimes, ICE has provided training to for-
eign law enforcement and NGOs, as appropriate, for 
the prevention, detection, and investigation of cases 
of child sexual exploitation. 
(12) Between 2003 and 2009, ICE obtained 73 
convictions of individuals from the United States 
charged with committing sexual crimes against mi-
nors in other countries. 
(13) While necessary to protect children and 
rescue victims, the detection and investigation of 
child sex predators overseas is costly. Such an un-
dercover operation can cost approximately $250,000. 
A system that would aid in the prevention of such 
crimes is needed to safeguard vulnerable populations 
and to reduce the cost burden of addressing crimes 
after they are committed. 
(14) Sex offenders are also attempting to enter 
the United States. In April 2008, a lifetime reg-
istered sex offender from the United Kingdom at-
tempted to enter the United States with the inten-
tion of living with a woman who he had met on the 
Internet and her young daughters. Interpol London 
notified Interpol United States National Central Bu-
reau (USNCB) about the sex offender’s status. 
Interpol USNCB notified the United States Customs 
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and Border Protection officers, who refused to allow 
the sex offender to enter the country. 
(15) Foreign governments need to be encour-
aged to notify the United States as well as other 
countries when a known sex offender is entering our 
borders. For example, Canada has a national sex of-
fender registry, but Canadian officials do not notify 
United States law enforcement when a known sex of-
fender is entering the United States unless the sex 
offender is under investigation. 
(16) Child sex tourists may travel overseas to 
commit sexual offenses against minors for the fol-
lowing reasons: perceived anonymity; law enforce-
ment in certain countries is perceived as scarce, cor-
rupt, or unsophisticated; perceived immunity from 
retaliation because the child sex tourist is a United 
States citizen; the child sex tourist has the financial 
ability to impress and influence the local population; 
the child sex tourist can ‘‘disappear’’ after a brief 
stay; the child sex tourist can target children meet-
ing their desired preference; and, there is no need to 
expend time and effort ‘‘grooming’’ the victim. 
(17) Individuals who have been arrested in and 
deported from a foreign country for sexually exploit-
ing children have used long-term passports to evade 
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return to their country of citizenship where they 
faced possible charges and instead have moved to a 
third country where they have continued to exploit 
and abuse children. 
(18) In order to protect children, it is essential 
that United States law enforcement be able to iden-
tify high risk child sex offenders in the United 
States who are traveling abroad and child sex of-
fenders from other countries entering the United 
States. Such identification requires cooperative ef-
forts between the United States and foreign govern-
ments. In exchange for providing notice of sex of-
fenders traveling to the United States, foreign au-
thorities will expect United States authorities to pro-
vide reciprocal notice of sex offenders traveling to 
their countries. 
(19) ICE and other Federal law enforcement 
agencies currently are sharing information about sex 
offenders traveling internationally with law enforce-
ment entities in some other countries on an ad hoc 
basis through INTERPOL and other means. The 
technology to detect and notify foreign governments 
about travel by child sex offenders is available, but 
a legal structure and additional resources are needed 
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to systematize and coordinate these detection and 
notice efforts. 
(20) Officials from the United Kingdom, Aus-
tralia, Spain, and other countries have expressed in-
terest in working with the United States Govern-
ment for increased international cooperation to pro-
tect children from sexual exploitation, and are call-
ing for formal arrangements to ensure that the risk 
posed by traveling sex offenders is combated most 
effectively. 
(21) The United States, with its international 
law enforcement relations, technological and commu-
nications capability, and established sex offender 
registry system, should now take the opportunity to 
lead the global community in the effort to save thou-
sands of potential child victims by notifying other 
countries of travel by sex offenders who pose a high 
risk of exploiting children, maintaining information 
about sex offenders from the United States who re-
side overseas, and strongly encouraging other coun-
tries to undertake the same measures to protect chil-
dren around the world. 
(b) DECLARATION OF PURPOSES.—The purpose of 
this Act and the amendments made by this Act is to pro-
tect children from sexual exploitation by preventing or 
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monitoring the international travel of sex traffickers and 
other sex offenders who pose a risk of committing a sex 
offense against a minor while traveling by— 
(1) establishing a system in the United States 
to notify the appropriate officials of other countries 
when a sex offender who is identified as a high in-
terest registered sex offender intends to travel to 
their country; 
(2) strongly encouraging and assisting foreign 
governments to establish a sex offender travel notifi-
cation system and to inform United States authori-
ties when a sex offender intends to travel or has de-
parted on travel to the United States; 
(3) establishing and maintaining non-public sex 
offender registries in United States diplomatic and 
consular missions in order to maintain critical data 
on United States citizen and lawful permanent resi-
dent sex offenders who are residing abroad; 
(4) providing the Secretary of State with the 
discretion to revoke the passport or passport card of 
an individual who has been convicted overseas for a 
sex offense against a minor, or limit the period of 
validity of a passport issued to an individual des-
ignated as a high interest registered sex offender; 
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(5) including whether a country is investigating 
and prosecuting its nationals suspected of engaging 
in severe forms of trafficking in persons abroad in 
the minimum standards for the elimination of 
human trafficking under section 108 of the Traf-
ficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 
7101 et seq.); 
(6) mandating a report from the Secretary of 
State, in consultation with the Attorney General, 
about the status of international notifications be-
tween governments about child sex offender travel; 
and 
(7) providing assistance to foreign countries 
under section 134 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 
1961 (22 U.S.C. 2152d) to establish systems to 
identify sex offenders and provide and receive notifi-
cation of child sex offender international travel. 
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) APPROPRIATE
CONGRESSIONAL
COMMIT-
TEES.—Except as otherwise provided, the term ‘‘ap-
propriate congressional committees’’ means— 
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and 
the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 
Representatives; and 
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