ICE and Sex Tourism

Not a lot of people realize it, but the United States exercises one of the most expansive concepts of extraterritorial jurisdiction in the entire world.  In layman’s terms, the United States aggressively seeks to punish criminal acts done in other countries.

For example, ICE recently arrested a Hawaii resident for engaging in sexual conduct with a minor in Cambodia.  (This practice is sometimes known as sex tourism.)  According to ICE, his arrest marked the fourth such arrest in the past week for sex acts with minors in Cambodia.

The arrest comes under part of the PROTECT Act (which, like the USA PATRIOT Act, is one of those ridiculously convoluted acronyms that Congressional types like to develop, standing for “Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today”).  Under 18 U.S.C. § 2423(b), it is a crime for a United States citizen or permanent resident to travel in foreign commerce for the purpose of engaging in “illicit sexual conduct.”  Illicit sexual conduct is defined as:

  1. a sexual act (as defined in section 2246) with a person under 18 years of age that would be in violation of chapter 109A if the sexual act occurred in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States; or
  2. any commercial sex act (as defined in section 1591) with a person under 18 years of age.

A person convicted of violating this law can be punished with up to 30 years in prison.  And as is clear from the amount of cross-referencing in the definition of “illicit sexual conduct,” just like I mentioned earlier this morning, this is another example of overlapping statutes.