US will start revoking passports for thousands of parents who owe child support, AP learns
WASHINGTON (AP) — US State Department It will begin revoking the U.S. passports of thousands of parents who owe significant amounts of unpaid child support.
The department told The Associated Press on Thursday that revocations would begin Friday and focus on those who owe $100,000 or more. This would apply to approximately 2,700 American passport holders, according to figures provided to the State Department by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Cancellation program whose plans were canceled for the first time AP reported in FebruaryIt will soon be greatly expanded to include parents who owe more than $2,500 in unpaid child support, the State Department said.
It wasn’t clear Thursday how many passport holders owe more than $2,500 because HHS is still collecting data from government agencies that track the numbers, but it could include thousands of people, officials said.
Until this week, penalties were imposed only on those who applied to renew their passports. Under the new policy, HHS will report all past-due payments over $2,500 to the State Department, and passport parents in this group will have their documents revoked, the department said.
“We are expanding a common-sense practice that has proven effective in ensuring that those who owe child support pay their debts,” said Mora Namdar, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs. “Once these parents resolve their debt, they can once again enjoy the privilege of a U.S. passport.”
Since the AP reported the program’s expansion on Feb. 10, the department has said it has “seen data that hundreds of parents have taken action and resolved debts with state authorities since news broke that the State Department would begin proactively revoking passports.”
“While we cannot confirm causality in all of these cases, we are taking this action precisely to encourage these parents to do what is right by their children and under U.S. law,” the department said.
Even before the policy was expanded, the ministry said the program was a “powerful tool” to enable parents to pay off their debts. Since it began in earnest in 1998, states have collected nearly $657 million in delinquent collections, including more than $156 million in more than 24,000 individual lump sum payments over the past five years, the report said.
Within the scope of the program, those whose passports have been canceled will be informed that after it is confirmed that their debts have been paid, they will not be able to use their documents for travel and will need to apply for a new passport.
A passport holder who is abroad at the time of cancellation will need to visit a U.S. embassy or consulate to obtain an emergency travel document allowing him or her to return to the United States.
