Yes! The International Family Law Attorneys at the Manely Firm are ready to act!
Imagine the relief of a mother struggling to support her young children after months or even years of missed child support payments. A court has already ordered support. But instead of paying, the other parent used the money to travel internationally. Yet once that parent leaves the country, the payments suddenly stop, communication disappears, and enforcement becomes dramatically more difficult.
That scenario is precisely what a renewed federal passport enforcement initiative is designed to address.
In recent statements, the U.S. Department of State announced that the federal government is coordinating with the Department of Health and Human Services “on an unprecedented scale” to revoke the passports of Americans with substantial child support arrears. According to the Department, the initiative is intended to support American families by imposing “real consequences for child support delinquency under existing federal law.”
The policy itself is not new. The legal authority dates back nearly thirty years. And it enjoys bipartisan support.Under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, the President Bill Clinton’s administration gained authority to deny or revoke passports for individuals owing significant child support obligations. Federal law currently permits passport denial or revocation once arrears exceed $2,500 and the delinquency is certified with agency paperwork.
Historically, many Americans encountered this enforcement mechanism only when attempting to obtain or renew a passport. But the recent policy shift by President Trump’s administration aims at proactive enforcement against existing passport holders including those Americans already abroad.
Importantly, this enforcement framework has historically enjoyed broad bipartisan support. While the recent expansion and aggressive implementation have occurred under the Trump Administration, the underlying statutory framework originated in 1996 and has long been viewed by both Republican and Democratic policymakers as a legitimate child support enforcement mechanism. Debate surrounding the policy generally focuses less on whether enforcement should occur and more on how to avoid unfairly penalizing individuals who are actively participating in approved payment plans or experiencing genuine financial hardship.
This works for all Americans that our government is taking steps to protect our greatest national treasure – our children. For many families, these measures may provide meaningful leverage against parents who simply refuse to comply with support obligations.
For the International Family Law Attorneys at The Manely Firm, this topic is not merely a hypothetical policy discussion, it is a frequent and reoccurring fact pattern we encounter every day in our practice.
Our firm frequently represents clients whose former spouse leaves the United States after a child support order has already been entered. In many cases, the litigation begins in a Georgia court. Custody is determined. Child support is ordered. Payments begin — and then suddenly stop after the obligor relocates abroad.
At that point, the custodial parent suddenly discovers an extremely frustrating (and expensive!) truth: obtaining a court order and enforcing a court order are two very different things especially over international borders.
Once a parent leaves the country, the usual enforcement mechanisms like wage garnishments become ineffective. Even locating the obligor can become a substantial challenge.
These are the types of matters commonly associated with Hague Convention procedures and international family law enforcement.
The Hague Convention framework developed because modern families increasingly cross international borders. Parents relocate for employment opportunities, remarriage, military service, immigration concerns, or simply for personal reasons. Without international cooperation, family law obligations could become effectively unenforceable the moment a parent boards an international flight.
The Hague system addresses that problem by creating treaty-based procedures through which participating nations recognize and enforce family law obligations entered in other countries. Depending on the nation involved, these mechanisms may assist with recognition of child support orders, enforcement proceedings, financial collection efforts, and cooperation between governmental agencies. Some countries refused even to sign the treaty. This results on a sophisticated patchwork of solutions that depend on many variables.
That is why the State Department’s renewed passport enforcement initiative matters.
For years, international family law practitioners have watched obligors exploit international borders as a practical shield against enforcement. A parent subject to a lawful child support order could leave the United States, establish residence abroad, and force the custodial parent remaining at home into an exhausting and expensive international enforcement battle simply to obtain the support already ordered by an American court. The ironic conclusion is the parents squander the resources that the court ordered for the child that the funds were supposed to support!
In many cases, the strategy is not subtle. The obligor understands that once international boundaries enter the equation, enforcement becomes slower, more complicated, and dramatically more expensive for the parent caring for the child. The custodial parent is often left navigating foreign legal systems, Hague Convention procedures, jurisdictional disputes, international service requirements, and substantial attorney’s fees all while continuing to shoulder the day-to-day financial burden of raising the child alone and all while receiving no child support. It’s a double-whammy.
By aggressively enforcing passport revocation authority before obligors are able to leave the county, the federal government is attempting to remove one of the most effective tools delinquent obligors have historically used to evade accountability. In practical terms, the policy recognizes a simple reality: American parents caring for children at home should not be forced into international litigation merely because the other parent has the financial ability to board an international flight instead of sending the child support payment.
Will this eliminate international child support litigation entirely? Of course not. But this change pay shift the onus of that litigation onto the proper party and alter the prospects of many litigants seeking to obtain what is rightfully theirs – the court-ordered support payments intended for the child.
Allen Hoffman
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