$311,491 for a passport?

[kurth]

Passport rules snag child support cash
By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 14, 3:34 PM ET

The price of a passport: $311,491 in back child support payments for a U.S. businessman now living in China; $46,000 for a musician seeking to perform overseas, and $45,849 for a man planning a Dominican Republic vacation.

The new passport requirements that have complicated travel this summer also have uncovered untold numbers of child support scofflaws and forced them to pay millions. The State Department denies passports to noncustodial parents who owe more than $2,500 in child support. Once the parents make good on their debts, they can reapply for passports.

Now that millions of additional travelers need passports to fly back from Mexico, Canada, the Caribbean and South America, collections under the Passport Denial Program are on pace to about double this year, federal officials told The Associated Press. In all, states have reported collecting at least $22.5 million through the program thus far in 2007. The money is then forwarded to the parent to whom it is owed.

Some people never learn. A boxer paid $39,000 in back child support to the state of Nevada last year to get a passport, which he lost. This year, his promoter had to loan him $8,930 so he could pay off his new child support debts and get a new passport to fight overseas. In one case last year, a man got his parents to pay his overdue child support — $50,498 to the state of Illinois. "For us, it's been amazing to see how people who owe back child support seem to be able to come up with good chunks of money when it involves needing their passport," said Adolfo Capestany, spokesman for the state of Washington's Division of Child Support. "Folks will do anything to get that passport, so it is a good collection tool."...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap_travel/passports_child_support

[Elspeth]

1. This is a good thing. Child support should be paid before these folks leave the country

"For us, it's been amazing to see how people who owe back child support seem to be able to come up with good chunks of money when it involves needing their passport,"

I'll bet.


But maybe you've never had to raise kids on your own dime without any help from the parent who got to skip town.

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. I was one of four such kids

My dad, for all his faults, never missed a payment; even then, my mom had to work two jobs in order to raise four children by herself. I shudder to think of where we would have been had he skipped out.

I have absolutely no sympathy for the excrement being caught up in this.

[Maddy McCall]

2. Good.

If deadbeats won't pay simply because their children need the money, and if denying deadbeats passports will prod them to pay, then all I can say is "Good for the kids."

[TechBear_Seattle]

3. Good

I'm glad to see that some good is coming from the Junta's paranoia. Scum who flee the country in order to dodge their responsibilities should be forced to make good on their debts.

[MissMillie]

4. This is brilliant

is too bad the states can't join in when it comes to driver's licenses.

[Maddy McCall]

7. Many do.

Many suspend deadbeats' drivers license.

[Richardo]

9. ...or won't renew them when the time comes

Texas does that. :thumbsup:

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

11. Florida does too.

I work in payroll and you'd be surprised at how many parents come into my office shocked when they discover their checks are now being garnished. Some of them quit their jobs. I always tell them they should check with the driver's license agency because, they may be driving on a suspended license. They go into double shock when they get a bonus and it has to go totally into back child support payments.

[babylonsister]

5. Rec'd because I didn't know getting a passport now is involved with

other agencies. I think people who don't pay their child support should be tracked down, but I'm shocked this is how the gov't is going about it.

[AlCzervik]

8. "$45,849 for a man planning a Dominican Republic vacation." but he didn't pay his child support.

nice priorities there.

[bunkerbuster1]

10. I'm sure he was planning to bring Viagra

And See-gars. Lotsa see-gars, like his hero Rush?

Just imagining. And now I'll stop, because it's gross.

[yardwork]

12. If they can afford to travel overseas they can afford to pay their child support.

[quiet.american]

13. How long before you can't leave the country until your defaulted student loan is paid?

This might seem like a good thing because they started out by targeting a segment everyone on both sides of the aisle can get behind "bringing in" -- but what happens as they start expanding the targets to include those with defaulted student loans... those with defaulted mortgage payments... those who are in arrears on their credit card payments... those whose credit rating falls below a certain score... this sounds to me as though it has shades of being unconstitutional... unless there were warrants out for these guys who couldn't be bothered to support their kids.... who gets to decide what segment of society they target next and why? Look at the quote from Adolfo Capestany in the article ".... it's a good collection tool." How long before this is abused in Bushco's America?

[Karenina]

14. Back to reality.

Sofort! ;-)

[Connonym]

15. Good points that I didn't consider

This does have great potential to be a double-edged sword

[LostinVA]

16. Totally different -- these are court-ordered payments

Not everything is a "slippery slope." Some things are just great ideas, and this is one of them. Anyone who has ever had a friend or relatives children (or themselves, although that's not my case) cheated out of money they NEED will agree.

[quiet.american]

18. Well, if you say so. :) n/t

[LostinVA]

21. I don't say so -- it's a fact

They are court-ordered payments.

[quiet.american]

24. I'm not disputing the "court-ordered" payments. Peace! n/t

[WTF cubed]

17. Those were my questions upon reading the OP...

Or what if you're in debt to one of the usery loan sharks (who now have many lobbiests)?

We are not that far behind the old USSR.

[Matariki]

19. I agree with you

While everyone seems to be cheering this on, I find it disturbing. I think you might be making a correct prediction - student loans are probably next. Then people who fail to register for the draft. And so forth.

[Clark2008]

22. To that I say, "so what?"

If you owe a debt, either pay it, go through bankruptcy or ask for forgiveness for the loan.

Why is it a bad idea to catch people who owe money, which, in turn, costs the rest of us higher usage fees?

[quiet.american]

25. Many are doing that and traveling at the same time.

What's disturbing to me is that this is happening under the auspices of the Bush administration. Do I think deadbeat dads should not be made to pay up? Of course not. But it seems to me it won't stop there. I wouldn't be surprised to see a whole new financial sector spring up out of this.

[grace0418]

26. I agree with that in theory. But I also know that LOTS of mistakes are made.

One of my student loans was sold but never closed properly (all things completely beyond my control). So according to the University of Illinois, I had simply stopped paying it one day and was in default. Except that I *was* paying it to the new holder of the loan. I had all kinds of proof.

I didn't know any of this until we started saving up to buy a house. We got copies of our credit reports to make sure there were no problems and I discovered this doozy. Even though I had ample proof of this obvious error, the U of I wouldn't budge on changing my report. I pretty much had to wait until enough time passed to have it not matter to my credit score.

Can you imagine if I had tried to get a passport and found I couldn't get one until I paid U of I thousands of dollars that I didn't even owe? The first time I got a passport as an adult was when I was being sent to Japan on a very important business trip and the whole thing had to be expedited. If my request had been denied because of that, I could've lost my job.

I know I'm not the only one (by a long shot) who has had various judgments and debts against them that weren't correct. So it's easy to say "so what" but in practice it can be extremely unfair.

Now, court ordered child support payments are a different story...

[electron_blue]

20. by the time child support default has gotten to $300K there is very likely

a warrant out, and a court order has been broken. This is not a minor deal in the eyes of the court and hardly comparable to someone late with a credit card payment (unless a warrant is out for you for this). I see your concern, however, that the current administration could abuse this. Honestly, though, they need no justification at all to detain anyone, put them in jail indefinitely with no lawyer. All they have to claim is it's terrorism related. They don't need to bother abusing this child support passport development bcs they already have what they need.

[quiet.american]

23. True enough, but if they can get a little money out of you for the war chest, too, why not?

Who ever thought government-contracted collection agencies would have free reign to terrorize people over their student loans to the point where some have committed suicide?

There's something about this that just makes me uneasy. In the current climate, how hard would it be to pass a bill that says any U.S. citizen traveling abroad is a national security risk unless their bills are paid up? Fanciful? Perhaps. But it's starting to be difficult to recall what it feels like to live in a free country -- so much has happened here that we never thought could happen here.

[MattSh]

27. Agreed.

First they targeted the child support deadbeats, but I wasn't a child support deadbeat, so I cheered them on.
Then they came for those who were behind on mortgage payments because they were ill, had no health insurance, and could only afford treatment outside they USA, but I wasn't behind on my payments, and wasn't sick, so I cheered them on.
Then they found a reason to deny me a passport. Does it really matter why???

Well, you know how the rest of this plays out.....