Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), the author of the landmark Sean and David Goldman International Child Abduction Prevention and Return Act (PL 113-150)—the law created to help return kidnapped American children—issued the below statement following U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s announcement that the State Department will be implementing a new policy to “restrict visa issuance to individuals responsible for, or complicit in, impeding the prompt resolution of international parental child abduction cases, as well as their immediate family members”:

                “As the author of the Sean and David Goldman International Child Abduction Prevention and Return Act (PL 113–150)—which listed specific diplomatic tools and gave the State Department other authorities to enact critical, groundbreaking policies to combat international parental child abduction—I want to thank Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar for taking such bold and decisive action to prevent and punish this incredibly heartbreaking and life-altering crime.

                “The specified policy, which will restrict visa issuance to foreign nationals found to be responsible for, or complicit in, cases of international parental child abduction, is another critical addition to the United States’ toolkit for reuniting families and securing the return of abducted children to the U.S.

                “This escalated action is exactly what the Goldman Act envisioned over ten years ago—a United States visa is a privilege, not a right, and it is reserved for those individuals who fully comply with U.S. law and policy.

                “Any judge, official, law enforcement officer, or individual, who deliberately obstructs the court-ordered return of an American child to their left-behind parent, should not be afforded the opportunity to travel to the United States.

                “I commend Secretary Rubio and Assistant Secretary Namdar for taking critical steps to ensure that American children abducted from their parent(s) are returned, and that all noncompliant actors are held accountable.”

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