Associated Press – August 14, 2007 9:23 PM ET:
WASHINGTON (AP) – Tighter travel rules surrounding passports are creating some big benefits for single parents who’ve been waiting for child support payments.
Federal officials say more than $22 million has been collected this year from child support scofflaws.
The State Department denies passports to non-custodial parents who owe child support until they make good on their debts.
Now that millions of additional travelers need passports to fly back from Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean and South America, officials say collections under the program are on pace to about double this year.
A child support enforcement official in Washington state says “it’s been amazing to see” how people who owe child support can come up with the money when they need a passport.
In one case, a U.S. businessman now living in China paid more than $300,000 in back child support in order to get his passport.
The thing that troubles me about this is that apparently you don’t have to be charged with the crime of failure to pay child support to be denied a passport. You only have to owe child support. I see nothing wrong with being denied a passport if you’re charged with a crime. But if the government can block us from traveling merely because we owe child support, it’s only a matter of time before they do the same when we’re behind paying our credit cards or our cable bill.
Looks to me that SN is in a mood for retro chicks.
#4. Nope. Every child-support order is just that, a court order. That is why it is enforceable through contempt. The parties may have agreed on that amount and the judge rubber-stamped it, but it is still a court order.
And the big problem in this country isn’t the woefully ‘victimized’ daddies who don’t get to see their kids, its absentee fathers who don’t pay their frikkin’ child support.
That’s how they got $22 mil paid up in less than a year, even though the vast majority of Americans don’t travel overseas and have no inclination to get a passport.
While alimoney may be totally wrong in many cases, probably a majority…..child support is a different dog….if they are your kids, YOUR responsable for them, until they become adults. We can sit here for the next 2 years and cite cases of abuse by women with regards to the courts and child support……but in the end, the guy needs to be at least making an honest effort to support his children. If he’s not, and like the vast majority of parents behind in child support payments, just walking away from their obligations because it suits them, then they deserve to lose ALL of the privledges of normal citizen. In most of these cases, it’s us, the guys or woman who didn’t get the fun out of the creation of the child that ends up paying for it’s care and well being.
Sorry…dead beats don’t get my sympathy.
I have been paying back child support for over 10 years, my chid is over 18 years old and because my wages have been garnished this entire time I have never missed a payment. I recently applied for a passport and have been denied. I wasn’t denied because I haven’t been paying or because I missed a payment. I was simply denied because they have mandated that I have a 0 balance (currently owe 4600). This has got to be one of the shadiest laws I have heard of.
I am a hardworking, law obeying citizen and I cannot even takin a FN vacation.
What about the guy who met the lady at a party, things happen, she comes to him and tells him she is prego and he tells her “I am not ready for a kid, but I will stay with you throughout the pregnancy and we will put the child up for adoption’. She then tells him to take a hike. The lady has now decided to raise a child on her own. NOT… She signs his name on a peace of paper and does not contact him for eight years. BAM He is hit with 32,000 in back support. He gets a lawyer and attempts to quash the judgment so that he can start fresh, NO GO. He starts paying support, back support and does his best to have what relation he can with the child . He now has a wife and two children and with what he pays, the interest is growing faster than he can pay it off. He is now 40,000 in arrears, no passport and has been offered an overseas tour which would help in paying what they say he owes. he needs his passport, not to run, but to help pay so that he can have a normal life. It is a f***** up law.
Wow! It’s obvious that most of you are either on the “receiving” end…have never dealt with the morons at the CSE offices. I have never defended a deadbeat, but then again, only non-custodial parents are considered deadbeats in your eyes.
First of all, children of divorce are no better than children of intact families. If the custodial parent remarries and has other children, they provide their first child LESS financially because they CHOSE to have additional children…but the non-custodial parent is NEVER afforded that same luxury. In intact families, it works the same…you have another child, X amount of money is divided between ALL your children…but only when divorced, are the children entitled to more.
And of course, only from the non-custodial parent…The custodial can have 30 more kids and not work and nobody gives a darn about that.
As far as deadbeats, I have never defended a deadbeat. The idiot ex-wives who believe their ex’s owe them the world are the ones who create this mess, with the assistance of the state governments.
And again, obviously, you have never been on the giving end of this issue…because only 4% of reductions are ever actually processed…all others, are NOT. That’s ok…it’s your tax dollars paying for these money hungry women anway…
By the way, the post was against this passport issue, just like all others NOT because I defend deadbeats, but because the system is garbage and thousands of mistakes are made…just like in our situation…and THOUSANDS of others…therefore, unless you’ve been on the “mistakes were made side”, you shouldn’t be talking…again, obviously, you’re on the receiving end or have never truly found out how the system works…you have only taken the time to listen to the lies the custodial mothers (or mostly mothers) have been saying, because they use their childrens to gain sympathy for themselves.
By the way, thanks to their lies and lazines, its at least 23% of all those thousands of dollars that the CSE is collecting that YOU are paying in Texas…you see, for all those thousands of dollars, whether they were owed or not, YOU pay 23% to the states…So again, it’s the custodial mothers welfare living that are taking your hard earned tax dollars…
This new law works out for me-as my x who refuses to care for his sons financially and otherwise-loves to travel and has the need to use his passport! Eventually the system will catch up to the deadbeat! In the meantime the children are taken care of by me and what he does not do for them I consider ABUSE. In this country if you dont feed your animals you probably could go to jail quicker than a deadbeat father who does not feed his children…and goes out and makes more children..here and abroad!
I had a child with a woman who was deported to Colombia in 1999 due to an expired visa. I never saw that woman anymore until 2004 when she went to the court and claimed child support. I went to court and since that day I have compied religiously with the payments including a montly payment towards to the 35k that I supposely own for retroactive child support. I have never had any arrears, it is retroactive.
Well, they intercepted my incometax return even when part of that money came from my actual wife who is not involved in the child support case, they damaged my credit all the way with a collection delinquent 35k account from the child support enforcement and they have denied my passport. All that was not included in the court order and the judge never ordered that, that was done without a court order.
I went back to the court and the court granted a motion for allowing me to have my passport reinstated but still denied.
This is not only a violation of the human rights and the constitution of the US, this is also an action against the court order against a person who is complying religiously with the law.
The big problem is that passport and many other things in this country can be denied, taken or seized by any government agency without a court order and amaizingly against the court order too as if the law doesnt exists.
The biggest mistake that I have made in my entire life was to become american citizen but in my case, I still have the cuban passport. You guys are in deep trouble because you have no choice unless you married a Spanish, Italian etc citizen and go elsewhere.
At least in Cuba, Castro respect his own law more often than US respects its own constitution and rights.
Well… let me clue some of you in. I lost my job and was out of work for 5 months. I had zero income and was living off my 401k. I made the mistake of not going to court to get it lowered but that neither here nor there beacuse I still would have owed. So I owed 14K just in the span of 5 months. so now I can’t get a passport despite the fact that they took the amount that I was paying in temporary alimony and put it towards the arrears. so now the arrears are 11K. My thing is that this has turned into a payment arrangement and I’m paying my obligation as well as paying down the arrears so why should my passport be denied? I just don’t agree with that.
Interesting comment: “But if the government can block us from traveling merely because we owe child support, it’s only a matter of time before they do the same when we’re behind paying our credit cards or our cable bill.”
The difference is, of course, that we are not obligated by law to our credit cards or our cable bills. Also, our credit cards and cable bills didn’t just show up in the world after a steamy night…….
My husband fell on hard times and got behind in support. He’s paying now and I help. But because he is behind he cannot go on a trip that I got as a bonus. His wife left him for another man when his daughter was 2. He’s paid for a lot of years but what he’s paid does not count. It’s the part he’s trying to get caught up on that counts against him every where he goes. He’s never been refused visitation but they just never answer the phone and don’t really want to be bothered. He’s paid a tremendous amount of money already and now we’re going to be paying for college. We only hear from her on her birthday and Christmas. Present time. She has no interest in him at any other time. Though he tries.
Actually, maybe it’s not such a bad law after all…except that as many decided to post here, it should probably go further…It’s true, that parents should morally support their children…and this is a darn good law to ensure that happens…so I think we need to instead of complain about the law, ensure that it goes further into protecting our children…
Since BOTH parents should support their children financially, let’s go to our senators/legislatures and push for the following ammendments in the name of children whose parents don’t support them financially…
1. ANYONE on welfare should be denied a passport (if you are on welfare, you are NOT supporting your children, the state is…just like when a non-custodial parent doesn’t pay and you claim the state has to flip the bill)
2. ANYONE on any type of SSI should be denied a passport (again, you are NOT supporting your children, the state is)
3. ANYONE who is a custodial parent who does NOT work to earn a living should be denied a passport…(this will include anyone who is custodial, receives child support from the non-custodial parent…since really, the only one supporting the children is the non-custodial…) and
WOW! And the added benefit to all of these? Well, that if ANY of these custodial parents are receiving child support from the non-custodial, we can at least ensure that the child support is being spent on the NEEDS of the child, not the travels of the custodial parent and/or child…since those are NOT needs (per the other posters here)
4. Actually, while you’re at it…if you are MARRIED and you don’t work, you should also be denied a passport if you have children…imagine, children should benefit from the money of BOTH parents (isn’t that what the divorced custodial parents claim?) I’d say, I AGREE 100%.
i’ve been sitting here read this BS from people who make 30+ a year or more or who dont pay CS or youre even married or whatever the case may be. Everone situation on child support is different from others.Just cause you owe money on child support dosent make you a dead beat dad OK its some out there. Call me what you want but I’m behind 10+ and have been trying to catch up but its impossible. My job only pays me 18+ a year my rent is 550 per month not including billls and car insurance, food, etc. I have to pay almost 800 per month for 2 kids but my daughter only gets 175 per month and the rest goes to my son. I pay rouglhly 500 per month for my son and thats based on my military pay wages i’ve been out the army for 10 years now. You say talk to the CSE to get it reduced F*** them i’ve been trying to get it reduced for 10 years and still no luck. For you people that think that the CS laws are fair you can go to hell. My support got increased because her and her husband wanted a bigger house and neither one worked so i have to pay their rent and the judge allowed it. I take care of my kids well my daughter because she lives in PA and my son lives in Arkansas i havent seen him in 10 yrs because of his mother. Now i cant get a passport to get a JOB to try and catch up. It sounds stupid that you people say that we shouldnt get a passport because we want to flee the country cause we owe money. I’m trying to work for the Military Sealift Command and cant get a good paying job to support my family. Its BS and for all you that agree with it stop being on the outside looking in step into my world.
If memory serves me correctly, the Third and Eigth Circuit Courts of Appeals have ruled that child support is a common, commercial debt.
The question then becomes why have we resurrected debtors prisons that deny parents the means to earn an income in order to support themselves and their children?
Maybe it has something to do with the federal reimbursements that the states collect under the Child Support Performance and Incentive Act that rewards states for ordering the maximum amount of child support in all circumstances?