Starting October 5, individuals with a debt of $15,000 or more in child support will have their passports revoked, according to María del Mar Mateu Meléndez, administrator of the Administración para el Sustento de Menores (ASUME). This is the sixth phase of an initiative with the federal government, which began in May, targeting non-custodial parents with eligible child support debt.
The federal Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) sent a list of eligible debtors to the US Department of State, which will identify individuals with valid passports and may start revocations on October 5. The US government began revoking passports in May for child support debts, initially targeting those with $100,000 or more in debts in Puerto Rico, and has since lowered the threshold to $75,000, $50,000, $40,000, and $25,000.
As of August 27, over 5,400 individuals in Puerto Rico had child support debts between $25,000 and $39,999.