US will start revoking passports for parents who owe child support

https://apnews.com/article/passports-unpaid-child-support-penalty-state-department-42d90cfa8a06ee349bb9145f668919b6

by OutOfHere • 3 months ago

73 50 3 months ago

apnews.com

samlinnfer• 3 months ago

Looks like China is just ahead of the curve where you can't buy a plane ticket or book a train if you owe debts.

actionfromafar2• 3 months ago

And in Dubai you can't open your door!

UberFly• 3 months ago

Owing child support is a negative on children and society in general, but I'm sure there are plenty who will argue in favor of it.

bsder• 3 months ago

I don't have much of a problem with the $100K penalties.

I have a lot more issue with a $2.5K limit--that could be just one or two (intentionally or unintentionally) misreported payments. Or a paycheck hiccup. Or a layoff. Or a government error (because we all know how infallible DOGE was). Or a government shutdown. Or ...

We specifically decry the concepts of debtor's prisons and social credit in the US. For good reasons.

This is leaving aside the whole discussion about your passport being an identity document that isn't subject to control of a single US state government like your driver's license.

bawolff2• 3 months ago

I have a lot more issue with a $2.5K limit--that could be just one or two (intentionally or unintentionally) misreported payments. Or a paycheck hiccup. Or a layoff. Or a government error (because we all know how infallible DOGE was). Or a government shutdown. Or ...

In all of those situations, the child still has needs that need to be paid for.

mjd• 3 months ago

I accidentally read the comments on the post and got as far as this one:

“Honestly, since we're going towards socialism, we need to abolish child support. Women have the right to get an abortion because it is their body their choice. A man has to use his body …”

That was enough for me.

piltdownman• 3 months ago

I mean that's just reductio ad absurdum to be haughtily oblique about the whole issue.

Social programs =/= socialism. There are plenty of capitalist economies with robust social safety nets - most EU countries provide free healthcare, education, and forms of UBI in the forms of grants for artists and social welfare for those incapable of working.

RiverCrochet2• 3 months ago

I never understood this line of logic:

- X doesn't pay child support because X lost their job.

- X gets their driver's license revoked because they missed child support payments.

So ... how are you supposed to find a new job with out a car in most U.S. communities? This doesn't improve the situation for anyone involved, but allows the state to make it much, much worse.

marcusverus• 3 months ago

Who said anything about revoking drivers licenses?

handedness• 3 months ago

Not commenting one way or the other, but here is what authorizes this:

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA)[0]

SEC. 370. DENIAL OF PASSPORTS FOR NONPAYMENT OF CHILD SUPPORT. (a) HHS Certification Procedure.— (1) Secretarial responsibility.—Section 452 (42 U.S.C. 652), as amended by section 345 of this Act, is amended by adding at the end the following new subsection: “(k)(1) If the Secretary receives a certification by a State agency in accordance with the requirements of section 454(31) that an individual owes arrearages of child support in an amount exceeding $5,000, the Secretary shall transmit such certification to the Secretary of State for action (with respect to denial, revocation, or limitation of passports) pursuant to paragraph (2). “(2) The Secretary of State shall, upon certification by the Secretary transmitted under paragraph (1), refuse to issue a passport to such individual, and may revoke, restrict, or limit a passport issued previously to such individual.[1]

The above may have predated the amended copy, as a threshold of $2,500 seemed to be the case at least 3 years ago, for whatever that is worth.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Responsibility_and_Wo...

[1] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/COMPS-1793/uslm/COMPS-17...

Perenti• 3 months ago

I've been told that American's have a very low rate of passport issuance. I don't know if that's true, but the figure quoted was only 10% of adults hold passports. Is this a really effective way to get people to pay for their kids, or just the appearance of doing something to quiet the voters?

rho1384• 3 months ago

As an american it is true that most people don’t have passports - the act of flying internationally is either out of reach economically or culturally. This does give mostly out of touch opression where the margins are the targets and the white dudes will likely get a pass, so the latter.

egorfine• 3 months ago

What does it mean "out of reach culturally"? Genuine question, I'm very curious about it.

Reubachi• 3 months ago

As an American, it is not true that most people don't have passports.

There are currently 180 million and change active issued passport to US citizens.

bawolff2• 3 months ago

Presumably it would be very effective for some demographics and not so effective for others. 10% is still a very large group of people. People who would be affected are also probably people who can afford international travel, so the affected are probably disporportionally the group who are failing to pay despite having a bunch of spare income.

defrost3• 3 months ago

It's possible this might have a significant (not small, not necessarily large) impact on the smaller subset of delinquent parents that might currently have a larger double digit percentage (30% say) skipping to Canada, Mexico, or elsewhere to avoid being chased down.

Or not.

The main point here is that it's not the entire population of regular US citizens that should be looked at here, more the specific behaviour of the subset in question.

mothballed5• 3 months ago

The constitution (article 11) of Mexico provides an explicit right of every person to enter Mexico without a passport (that doesn't mean every person in general -- you can be barred -- but not because you don't have a passport). You can witness this at land border crossings -- I routinely watch them let in foreigners without them (they're not following whatever uncited nonsense you read at the consulate wrongly claiming a passport is 'required' without citing any law). It is subject to immigration enforcement, but they're legally barred from requiring a passport. It won't do dick to stop delinquent people from leaving and anywhere that actually thoroughly checks passports also is a member of international child support enforcement treaties.

hdgvhicv2• 3 months ago

There’s about 180m us passports, so about half the country has one, about the same percentage as France.

ThePowerOfFuet• 3 months ago

How many of those are second passports for the benefit of people who wish to visit Israel without the added friction that Israeli stamps in their primary passport would bring?

Also, EU citizens do not require a passport to travel within the EU; by law, their national ID card suffices, thus making passports unnecessary for much of their travel.

iamthemonster• 3 months ago

In 1990 it was only 5% of Americans and now it's 50%. In the UK it's 85% but a better comparison is probably France who are in the Schengen Area so only 60% have a passport.

If I lived in France I doubt I would travel outside of the Schengen Area.

mothballed5• 3 months ago

About half of Americans traveling to/from Mexico by land at a small crossing i noticed didn't even have them (recently). Turns out Mexico doesn't legally require a passport for entry and the US has to take back citizens who appear without one. This won't do shit to stop escaping deadbeats, just another scheme to punish parents at a threshold so low it could be a single misreported tech worker payment while doing fuck all for the kids.

And people wonder why no one is having kids. It is punishment after punishment by a society who pretends to care about kids but does fuck all to help, only to rub it in your face and punish you when you are down.

danaris2• 3 months ago

The purpose of this isn't to twist people's arms to pay for their kids.

It's to punish poor, especially nonwhite, people and make it hard for them to escape the oppression of the Trump regime.

readthenotes1• 3 months ago

You're saying that Trump and company are trying to get the people of color who don't pay their child support to not leave the country. I'm not sure what the problem is. Can you explain it further?

I'm also curious why you think it is only targeting people of color and not people of white

pseudohadamard• 2 months ago

In addition, while there's a significant number of deadbeat dads, there's also a significant number in debtor's prison for not paying sufficient child support because they can't they don't have any money. It's a practice from medieval Europe that's been banned there but is still used in the US.

thefz• 3 months ago

Great, now do it with tax evaders.

stuaxo• 3 months ago

This sounds worse for the kids themselves.

OutOfHere• 3 months ago

Child support is just the start. It won't be long before passports are revoked for a number of other reasons too.

US will start revoking passports for parents who owe child support

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