INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL: PRIVILEGE OR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT?

A privilege is a special right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage, favor, or prerogative . As opposed to the construction of ‘inalienable’ rights, privileges refer to …. In this Research Job, I will attempt to determine whether international travel is a privilege or constitutional right of each U.S. citizen.

For many years, it was believed that freedom of movement is an inalienable human right (Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ). The question is, where does this right end and where does the obligation to protect the other people, society, and government interests begin? This is becoming an increasingly serious problem for the modern world.

Theoretically, there are reasons why a citizen's exit from their country may be prohibited. However, from a practical view, there is no existing mechanism for preventing travel abroad. A person may be prohibited from exiting a country for several reasons, such as being under investigation as a suspect, serving a criminal sentence, being a debtor in default, or posing a threat to national security.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requires children under 18 to have the appropriate travel documents when traveling internationally, such as a valid passport and, in some cases, a visa. However, parental consent is not typically required by DHS for children traveling outside of the United States.

U.S. law generally recognizes parents' authority over their children and their ability to decide about their children's travel. As a result, DHS assumes that if one parent agrees to international travel of his or her child, another parent automatically agrees. Often this assumption is wrong and leads to irreversible consequences. This not only poses a problem for the family in question, but for the whole country and DHS needs the tools to solve this problem.