On Monday, February 1st, the US Congress voted to send a bill to President Barack Obama that would for the first time in our nation’s history mark certain citizens’ passports. 

HR 515’s stated goal is to prevent child sex trafficking and sex tourism. Yet the bill’s wide-reaching scope targets all people on sex offender registries including thousands of children who are themselves victims of abuse and neglect. The bill requires that people on the sex offender registries—including 200,000 that have been placed on the registry for things they did as children—would have to carry passports branded “Sex offender.” The US has never marked passports with “unique identifiers” before. The law pins this scarlet letter most senselessly on children adjudicated in juvenile or family court.

Furthermore, the bill is intended to export our style of sex offender registration abroad. Registration has proven to be a catastrophic failure, marginalizing communities while doing nothing to protect children.

Signing this petition will send a note asking him to veto HR 515. 

 Read the L.A. Times Editorial Asking for the President's Veto

Thank you!