The U.S. State Department will begin revoking passports for thousands of parents who owe unpaid, court-ordered child support, according to reporting based on information provided to the Associated Press. The revocations start on Friday and initially target people with child support debt of $100,000 or more. Officials provided figures indicating this first phase would affect about 2,700 U.S. passport holders.
After the initial rollout, the policy is set to expand to include parents who owe at least $2,500 in unpaid child support, a lower threshold under a little-enforced 1996 law that gives the State Department authority to take passport action in these cases. Several outlets report that the number of people affected at the $2,500 level is not yet fully confirmed, because the State Department is still collecting and compiling debt data from agencies that track state-by-state support enforcement.
The change is presented as a broader enforcement effort following earlier planning and reporting about the passport revocation program.
