My new co-authored column, Passport Rules Unfair to Child Support Debtors (San Antonio Express-News, 9/8/07), criticizes the new child support/passport rules which are so overwhelmingly popular among the editorial boards of our nation’s newspapers. The column is a response to the Express-News’ recent editorial “Federal law catching up with deadbeat parents” (8/23/07). I commend the paper for its willingness to publish such criticism.
Passport Rules Unfair to Child Support Debtors
By Jeffery M. Leving and Glenn Sacks
San Antonio Express-News (9/8/07)
The San Antonio Express-News’ recent editorial “Federal law catching up with deadbeat parents” (8/23/07) presents a one-sided view of child support debtors. The editorial commends new passport policies which deny passports to parents who have fallen $2,500 behind on child support. The Express-News apparently believes that most child support debtors are willfully refusing to meet their support obligations, and asserts that many debtors seek to “hurt their ex-spouses by not paying child support.”
There are child support debtors who match the Express-News’ description, but they are very much the minority. Much has been said about a few of the large payments the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement says the program has collected, particularly the $311,491 paid by a father who was marooned in Hong Kong without a passport. Yet, according to the federal OCSE’s own data, such parents are in no way representative of the average “deadbeat.”
OCSE data shows that two-thirds of those behind on child support nationwide earned poverty-level wages; less than four percent of the national child support debt is owed by those earning $40,000 or more a year.
A look at Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s current “Texas Top 10 Most Wanted Child Support Evaders” poster on the AG’s website confirms this. There’s not one educated parent on the list, which instead contains six general/construction laborers, a landscaper, a salesman, and two tradesmen.
Child support obligors often fall behind because the child support system is mulishly impervious to the economic realities working people face, such as layoffs, wage cuts, unemployment, and work-related injuries. According to the Urban Institute, less than one in 20 non-custodial parents who suffers a substantial drop in income is able to get courts to reduce his or her child support payments.
Abbott’s office backhandedly acknowledges the difficulties men in these situations face, advising obligors, “It is best to get a lawyer, if you can afford one, to handle your attempt to change the amount of child support you owe.” How many unemployed blue-collar workers can afford to hire an attorney?
Another reason the passport rules are a bad idea is that the information being employed by the OCSE is often faulty. Child support enforcement agencies—including Abbott’s office—are notorious for their incessant “computer” errors which lead to the harassment and persecution of innocent citizens. Abbott’s office’s role in the Joe Martin case, as documented by the Des Moines Register, provides a good example.
Martin is disabled and childless, but was nonetheless targeted by the Texas Attorney General’s office for a phantom $3,500 child-support debt. According to the Register, the 47-year-old Iowan received numerous threatening letters which warned him that he could lose his driver’s license, have his bank account seized, and be publicly humiliated by being pictured on a “Most Wanted” poster. It was a case of mistaken identity–Abbott had the wrong Joe Martin–but it was only straightened out after media attention and a lot of heartache.
The passport rules also constitute a significant civil liberties violation. Given the errors in the child support system, as well as its often unreasonable demands and its inflexibility, the OCSE is effectively stripping many innocent citizens of their right to travel. In cases where an American’s passport has been lost while abroad, it means that he or she will be marooned in a foreign country, probably broke and possibly in danger.
While the OCSE and the media have focused on wealthy travelers, in many passport cases the money collected is not paid by the financially strapped “deadbeat” parent. Instead, it is paid by worried grandparents who don’t want their children trapped in a difficult situation.
In enforcing child support, both the federal government and the Texas Attorney General have emphasized punitive measures. What’s needed instead is an overhaul of the system, so that parents are not punished because they are unable to pay support obligations which are beyond their reach.
www.GlennSacks.com, Glenn Sacks
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6 users commented in " Passport Rules Unfair to Child Support Debtors "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackTo say that non-degreed persons should be exempt from their child support oblogation is absolutely ridiculous. I know many people without degrees who care for their children. Anyone in Texas who chooses not to pay child support deserves negative attention and lots of it. Only liberals cry about deadbeat dad’s rights. What about the rights of the children who not only grow up without their father but impoverished as well? Screw deadbeat dad’s, and anyone who sticks up for them. Society should pay for the deadbeat dad’s mistakes and actions? You pay for them since you like them so much. Have a deadbeat dad celebration and make yourself happy. You must be one of those fathers who refuse to pay child support because your wife doesn’t love you anymore. How pathetic you are to take that out on your children.
my ex husband refuses to get a real job and pay his support.He hasn’t filed taxes in at least four years and tells everyone that i will never get a dime of HIS money.I had the order fixed for him to only pay 200 dollars three times a year which comes out to 50 dollars a month.But I am the bad guy.what can u do?Now he has another son thats 6 years old my son who is 11 and now a new baby girl.I think if men wont pay the support they OWE their child then they should be forced to have a vacectomy so they can’t keep having kids they won’t take care of.
RPD…like what you said, not all “liberals” cry for deadbeat dads rights…haha…gross generalization…i am very “left” in many ways, and also a psychotherapist who works with the children being punished, perhaps inadvertantly, by the deadbeats….not to mention, dealing with one myself who is approx 15K behind [and spent years having nothing to do with our daughter] successfully forced me via court system [although we were never married and never a family] to quit my excellent job with benefits and move back to the south [from pacific NW] just so he was able to see her when he wanted to now that he has a new girlfriend….this from a very conservative court in the south….
and as always, the children are the ones who suffer….
The sad truth is these fathers need to take responsibility for their actions long before they unzip their pants. There’s no two ways about it; either they should get a vasectomy, to prevent the creation of kids they can’t afford, or they should pay child support when they create kids. And yes, kids cost thousands of dollars to raise.
Personally, I think Texas is doing a really admirable job identifying those men who wanted to shirk their responsibility. And the only reason men are angry is because they were able to abdicate responsibility for so long — and now have to pay the piper. Kudos, Texas! Keep up the outstanding work!
sorry i don’t get all of this as i’m in Australia. my bf is American and currently in Aus with me awaiting the birth of our daughter.. he is behind in his child support back over there because he is not allowed to work while in Australia. My family and i are supporting his stay here and paid for his airine ticket back toAus. does this mean that his passport has been cancelled and he won’t be allowed another? if so that is so not fair and our daughter will grow up without a father because of this stupid law.. i have a child from a previous relationship and have never once bothered to claim child support nor do i ever plan on it.we as woman know that if the man leaves we will have the child before we even get pregnant so really we have noone to blame but ourself. plus you dont go to jail for not paying it here. the most they can do is take your tax return.. i read how men work minimum wage over there and after paying support have nothing left to live off. any wonder there are so many homeless people in the usa.land of the free. i don’t think so
Americans have become so overwhelmingly stupid and ignorant over the years. Has anyone heard of the word extortion? Look it up in the dictionary. In fact, look it up in a dictionary from 50 years ago to one of today. Once the government has intruded into the relationships between mostly fathers and their children, those relationships are usually destroyed. And nobody buy a few gentlemen fight back? Is this not unconstitional? If I can’t renew my passport because of child support, what’s next? Americans are supposed to be lovers of freedom and will fight and DIE for it. I see Americans now as a bunch useless wimps without the fortitude to take on this socialist govenment they tell us we’re free! If the government has to be involved (which is promotes divorce because look at the money all the lawyers and courts make) the government should be promoting the family relationships and promoting father and mothers to be involved in dual rearing of their children they produced. Anyone put in jail for not paying child support is, by definition, a hostage. The US government doesn’t deal with their captors–neither do I.
Fortunately, the US economy won’t exist in 20 years. You’ll be overrun by the communists–you want it–look at your government. It’s already a police state. I’m glad and fortunate I left at the right time.
Classified by the US government: A Proud Deadbeat Dad
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