INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL: PRIVILEGE OR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT?

The abovementioned oversights of lack of border control at points of exit from the United States allow criminals to avoid a fair trial and punishment. This situation allows probationers to freely leave the United States, debtors and persons liable to pay child support, and others unwilling to bear obligations to the state can simply buy a one-way plane ticket and fly away to an unknown destination. Every year, thousands of children are abducted from the U.S. by one of their parents and taken abroad, with the father or mother taking the child without the other parent’s consent or by simply not returning to the U.S. with the child after a holiday or family visit. In rare cases, a child may be abducted by a different family member. The laws provide many measures to return the abducted child from abroad, but even these measures do not work most of the time.

However, there is no single measure that would prevent the child from leaving the country. A lot could change if (1) the Department of Homeland Security establishes border controls at exit points from the United States, (2) if the government requires travel consent from each parent, and (3) if government agencies, courts, and other competent authorities will notify DHS about any travel restrictions that a person may have.

A striking example that demonstrates the gaps in the current state of legislation is the case of Bogdana Osipova-Mobley, who managed to leave the United States twice unlawfully; initially in 2014, when she took her children away in violation the rights of her father and a court order, and subsequently in 2020 when she left the United States despite probation.

I fully understand that government officials believe that most Americans are trustworthy, but we must understand and remember that the United States is a multinational country. All American people, with the exception of Native Americans, once came to our country from somewhere, and many have an alternate airfield, that is, a place where they can go and hide.

Simply speaking, the universal solution to these problems would be to modify federal law to implement border controls at points of exit from the United States. Border officers should have to check the status of every person, regardless of his or her citizenship. Verification must be based on name, date, place of birth, and other personal data including fingerprints and biometric indicators. The use of fingerprint scanning could be critical because people may change their names in different jurisdictions without informing the U.S. government, but their fingerprint remains unchanged.

Federal and state agencies and courts must inform border control about any restrictions placed on any individual. Federal law, in turn, should provide a list of grounds to prohibit leaving the country. For example, if a person is on probation, information about their probation status should be available to border control agents in the event that their departure must be prevented. Finally, Federal law must mandate that any child under the age of 16 must have the consent of both parents if they want to leave the United States, or if that is unavailable, a Court Order should replace the absence of parental consent.

It is important for lawmakers and law enforcement to implement these changes, with an emphasis on border control at points of exit, to protect American children and the interests of the United States.