The effort to notify other countries about traveling sex offenders got more teeth recently when federal authorities started issuing passports to convicted pedophiles that identify their offender status.

It's a component of the International Megan's Law, a federal law sponsored by U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-4th Dist., and signed by President Obama in February of 2016.

The bill was named for Megan Kanka, the 7-year-old Hamilton girl killed in 1994 by a convicted sex offender who lived on her street. Her name also is memorialized on the New Jersey community notification law passed shortly after her death, which has companion laws in all 50 states.

Smith and the Kanka family talked about the passport provisionFriday morning in Trenton, saying it's just the latest in a now 23-year cause to notify the world about sex offenders.

"Child predators thrive on secrecy - a secrecy that allows them to commit heinous crimes against the weakest and most vulnerable," Smith said.

"Now, this is another layer of protection," the congressman said of the new stamp offenders will get on their passports.

The international Megan's Law required the federal Homeland Security and Justice departments to inform foreign governments when registered sex offenders are visiting their countries, and to get reciprocal information when they come to the U.S.

Since then, Smith said, the law has led to the United States warning nearly 100 countries about 3,500 convicted pedophiles seeking to enter their country, and nearly 2,000 being denied.

"Others, and this is speculative, were likely given more scrutiny by law enforcement while in the country," Smith said.

The passport branding, though, was delayed until Oct. 31 of this year, when the State department started issuing them, Smith said.

A convicted offender, if they get a passport, will find this message inside: "The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor, and is a covered sex offender pursuant to 22 United States Code Section 212b(c)(l)." 

Smith said it was Richard Kanka, in their numerous conversations about the legislation - which Smith first sponsored in 2008 - who brought up U.S. Passports.

"Passports, what are we doing with the passports?" Smith quoted Kanka as saying to him repeatedly.

Kanka said he and his wife Maureen always knew the original Megan's Law was just one piece of an overall mission to protect children and inform the public. It's now a two-decade cause that has seen slow and down times, but has always moved forward.

"We were rolling, but now we're rolling quicker," Kanka said after discussing the passport identifier. "We're excited because this is something's that's far overdue."

Also on hand for the announcement was retired state Sen. Peter Inverso, who sponsored the original Megan's Law.

This article originally ran on page 1 of the Trenton Times on Sat. Nov. 18, 2017 and can be read online at:

http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2017/11/megans_law_sex_offender_notification_cause_rolls_o.html