US to Strip Passports from Parents Behind on Child Support
The US State Department is set to start revoking the US passports of thousands of parents who have substantial unpaid child support obligations. The department informed on Thursday that the revocations would commence on Friday, targeting individuals who owe $100,000 or more. According to figures provided to the State Department by the Department of Health and Human Services, that would apply to approximately 2,700 American passport holders. The revocation programme is set to be significantly expanded to include parents who owe over $2,500 in unpaid child support – the threshold established by a little-enforced 1996 law, according to the State Department.
On Thursday, it remained unclear how many passport holders have debts exceeding $2,500, as HHS continues to gather data from state agencies responsible for monitoring these figures. Officials indicated that the number could potentially include many more thousands of individuals. Until this week, only individuals who submitted applications to renew their passports faced the penalty. Under the new policy, HHS will inform the State Department of all past-due payments of more than $2,500, and parents in that group with passports will have their documents revoked, the department said.
“We are expanding a commonsense practice that has been proven effective at getting those who owe child support to pay their debt,” Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar stated. “Once these parents resolve their debts, they can once again enjoy the privilege of a US passport.” Following the AP’s report on the programme’s expansion on February 10, the department stated it had “seen data that hundreds of parents took action and resolved their arrears with state authorities since news broke that the State Department would start proactively revoking passports.” The department stated that “While we cannot confirm the causation in all of those cases, we are taking this action precisely to urge these parents to do the right thing by their children and by US law.”
Prior to the expansion of the policy, the department stated that the program had served as a “powerful tool” in encouraging parents to fulfill their financial obligations. Since its inception in 1998, states have reportedly collected approximately $657 million in arrears, which includes over $156 million in more than 24,000 individual lump-sum payments made in the last five years. Individuals whose passports are revoked under the programme will receive notification that their documents cannot be used for travel. They will need to apply for a new passport once their arrears are confirmed as settled. A passport holder currently overseas during the revocation process must visit a US embassy or consulate to secure an emergency travel document, enabling their return to the United States.
