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Senator
Feinstein Introduces Legislation
to Prevent Kidnapping by Family Members and Bring Abductors to
Justice
-- Over 200,000 children taken by relatives each year --
March 11, 2004
Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) today
introduced legislation to give law enforcement new tools and resources
to prevent family members from snatching kids and to bring missing
children home. The two bills – the Family Abduction Prevention Act
and the Bring Our Children Home Act – will help the thousands of
children who are abducted by a family member each year.
Representatives Nick Lampson (D-TX), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Steve
Chabot (R-OH) and Martin Frost (D-TX) are cosponsoring companion
legislation in the House.
“Far too often, family abduction cases are ignored by the media
and by law enforcement – casting them aside as merely domestic disputes,”
Senator Feinstein said. “In reality, these cases are tragic – leaving
behind devastated custodial parents and confused children.”
Last year, Senator Feinstein worked with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
(D-TX) to pass the AMBER Alert law, creating a nationwide AMBER
Alert network. The AMBER Alert program is a voluntary partnership
between law-enforcement agencies and broadcasters to activate an
urgent alert bulletin in serious child-abduction cases. AMBER Alert
has been tremendously effective, resulting in the return of 126
children to their parents.
The Family Abduction Prevention Act, which is cosponsored by Senators
Hutchison and Russ Feingold (D-WI), makes funding available to states
for family abduction prevention and investigation, providing matching
grants up to $500,000 for FY2004 to assist with:
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Costs
associated with the extradition of individuals suspected of
committing the crime of family abduction. |
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Costs
borne by state and local law enforcement agencies to investigate
cases of missing children. |
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Training
for local law enforcement agencies on responding to family abductions.
The first few hours and days after an abduction are the most
important in recovering a child. Yet, many state and local law
enforcement agencies are unsure of the best way to respond to
a family abduction. Nearly 70 percent of law enforcement agencies
lack a written policy on how to respond to this crime. |
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Outreach
and media campaigns to educate parents on the dangers of family
abductions. |
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Assistance
to public schools to help with costs associated with flagging
school records. Where flagging is mandatory, school districts
notify law enforcement authorities when a missing child’s school
records are requested for transfer to a new school. With the
new school address in hand, law enforcement has another vital
piece of information to locate the missing child. |
The Bring Our Children Home Act, cosponsored by Senator Russ Feingold
(D-WI), gives law enforcement new tools to identify and return children
who are abducted and illegally taken out of the United States by
family members. This bill would:
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Create
a National Registry of Custody Orders. Providing a national
registry would allow law enforcement to quickly determine if
there is a pre-existing custody order on a child and stop an
abduction in progress. |
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Establish
a right of action in Federal court for resolution of child custody
disputes. Parents sometimes present law enforcement with conflicting
custody orders, which makes it more difficult to intervene.
This would help resolve cases where there are conflicting custody
orders in different states. |
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Allow
law enforcement to detain any child who was reported to the
FBI as missing. Law enforcement would be able to prevent parents
from fleeing the country and escaping punishment. |
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Require
countries to report on their efforts to prevent international
child abduction. Countries would be required to provide the
U.S. with information on the actions they take to prevent international
child abductions and expedite efforts to return children to
their custodial parents. |
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Require
federally funded supervised visitation centers to provide services
in child custody cases wherein a state court finds there is
a risk of abduction. |
Every
year, over 200,000 children are kidnapped by a parent or family
member, in most cases by a non-custodial parent. This represents
nearly 80 percent of all abductions in the United States and many
people do not realize how common this problem is.
“These bills represent a modest, yet important step forward in the
effort to keep our children safe,” Senator Feinstein added. “An
AMBER Alert cannot be issued every time a child is kidnapped by
a family member – there are simply too many cases a year.”
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The
prepared text of Senator Feinstein’s remarks follows:
“Last year, Senator Hutchison and I worked together to pass
the AMBER Alert law, which created a nationwide AMBER Alert
network. AMBER Alert has been tremendously effective – and
resulted in the return of 126 children to their parents. AMBER
Alert, however, generally applies only to stranger abductions.
There are 200,000 other children a year who are abducted by
a family member – in most cases by a non-custodial parent.
In most of these abductions, there is no Amber Alert issued.
There is no televised manhunt. There are no stories on the
National News.
Far too often, these cases are ignored by the media and by
law enforcement – casting them aside as merely domestic disputes.
In reality, these cases are tragic – leaving behind devastated
custodial parents and confused children.
That is why we are here today – to help the thousands of children
who are abducted by a family member each year.
These are children like Elias Flores-Gonzales, a 15 month-old
boy who was abducted by his father, Jesus Gonzales. After
a dispute with the child’s mother, Jesus fled from his apartment
in San Marcos, California. Subsequently, Jesus has been spotted
in Mexico, but Elias, and his father, are still missing, more
than a year later. This case is not unique. Sadly, it is just
one of the 559 family abductions that happen each day.
To help children like Elias, we are introducing two pieces
of legislation today to confront the epidemic of family abductions:
First, the Family Abduction Prevention Act would provide funding
to States for:
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Training,
investigations, and extradition of suspects – helping
law enforcement give these cases the attention they deserve. |
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Increasing
awareness of the problem – letting the public know that
these are not simply cases of domestic disputes, but are
indeed felonies. |
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Flagging
the school records of children who have been abducted
– helping to locate them when they are enrolled in a new
school, and that school requests their previous records.
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Second,
the Bring Our Children Home Act would give law enforcement
new tools to identify and bring home children illegally abducted
and taken out of the United States by family members. Most
importantly, this bill would:
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Create
a National Registry of Custody Orders – so that law enforcement
can quickly determine if there is a pre-existing custody
order on a child. |
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Establish
a right of action in Federal court for resolution of child
custody disputes – helping resolve cases where there are
conflicting custody orders in different states. |
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Allow
law enforcement to detain any child who was reported to
the FBI as missing – preventing parents from fleeing the
country and escaping punishment. |
Together,
these bills these bills represent a modest, yet important
step forward in the effort to keep our children safe. An AMBER
Alert cannot be issued every time a child is kidnapped by
a family member – there are simply too many cases a year.
But we can pass this legislation and do all that we can to
ensure that children are returned to their custodial parents.
I urge my colleagues in the Senate and House to pass this
legislation.”
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U.S.
Senator Dianne Feinstein
Website
Main Page:
http://feinstein.senate.gov/
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