WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department will begin revoking the U.S. passports of thousands of parents who owe huge amounts of unpaid child support.
The department told The Associated Press on Thursday that rescissions would begin on Friday, focusing on people who owe $100,000 or more. This will apply to approximately 2,700 U.S. passport holders, according to data provided by the Department of Health and Human Services to the State Department.
The revocation program, first reported by The Associated Press in February, will soon be significantly expanded to cover parents who owe more than $2,500 in unpaid child support — a threshold the State Department says was set by a lightly enforced 1996 law.
Officials said it was unclear Thursday how many passport holders owed more than $2,500 because HHS was still collecting data from state agencies that track those numbers, but it could include thousands more.
Until this week, only those applying to renew their passports would be penalized. Under the new policy, the Department of Health and Human Services will notify the State Department of all late payments of more than $2,500, and passport-holding parents will have their documents revoked, the department said.
“We are promoting a common-sense approach that has been proven effective in getting those who owe child support to pay their debt,” said Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Mora Namdar. “Once these parents resolve their debt, they can once again enjoy the privileges of a U.S. passport.”
Since the Associated Press reported on the expansion of the program on February 10, the department said, “Since news broke that the State Department would begin proactively revoking passports, it has seen data showing that hundreds of parents took action to resolve outstanding payments they owed to state authorities.”
“While we cannot confirm causation in all of these cases, we are taking this action precisely to prompt these parents to do the right thing for their children and U.S. law,” the department said.
Even before the policy was expanded, the department said the program had become a “powerful tool” for parents to repay what they owed. States have collected about $657 million in arrears since it officially began in 1998, including more than $156 million in more than 24,000 individual one-time payments over the past five years, the report said.
Those whose passports have been revoked as a result of the scheme will be informed that they will not be able to use their documents to travel and will have to apply for a new passport once it is confirmed that the outstanding balance has been paid.
Passport holders who were abroad when their passport was revoked need to go to a U.S. Embassy or Consulate to obtain emergency travel documents that would allow them to return to the United States.