WHITE PAPER
The Registered Sex Offender International Tracking System
I. Legislative Mandate
The specific mandate regarding establishing a system for tracking registered sex offenders
travelling internationally is found in 42 U.S.C. § 16928:
§ 16928. Registration of sex offenders entering the United States
The Attorney General, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the
Secretary of Homeland Security, shall establish and maintain a system for
informing the relevant jurisdictions about persons entering the United States who
are required to register under this title. The Secretary of State and the Secretary of
Homeland Security shall provide such information and carry out such functions as
the Attorney General may direct in the operation of the system.
The Final Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) Guidelines, issued on
July 1, 2008, discuss this particular section and expand upon the statutory language as follows:
Relevant provisions include SORNA § 128, which directs the Attorney
General to establish a system for informing domestic jurisdictions about persons
entering the United States who are required to register under SORNA, and 18
U.S.C. 2250(a)(2)(B), which makes it a federal crime for a sex offender to travel
in foreign commerce and knowingly fail to register or update a registration as
required by SORNA. To carry out its responsibilities under these provisions, the
Department of Justice needs to know if sex offenders registered in U.S.
jurisdictions are leaving the country, since such offenders will be required to
resume registration if they later return to the United States to live, work, or attend
school while still within their registration periods. Also, both for sex offenders
who are convicted in the United States and then go abroad, and for sex offenders
who are initially convicted in other countries, identifying such sex offenders when
they enter or reenter the United States will require cooperative efforts between
the Department of Justice (including the United States Marshals Service) and
agencies of foreign countries. As a necessary part of such cooperative activities,
foreign authorities may expect U.S. authorities to inform them about sex
offenders coming to their jurisdictions from the United States, in return for their
advising the United States about sex offenders coming to the United States from
their jurisdictions. For this reason as well, federal authorities in the United States
will need information about sex offenders leaving domestic jurisdictions to go
abroad in order to effectively carry out the requirements of SORNA § 128 and
enforce 18 U.S.C. 2250(a)(2)(B). [emphasis added]
To this end, the International Tracking of Sex Offenders Working Group (IWG) was
convened by the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending,
Registering, and Tracking (SMART) in 2008 and has met regularly since that time. The
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