Can a deportee be made to pay child support?

Monday, March 08, 2010

Dear Mrs Macaulay,

I am residing in the US as a naturalised citizen. At the moment, I am married to my husband pending the divorce decree. He has been living in Jamaica since being deported. My question is, how do I seek child support for my two children? He is not living in poverty but is known to conceal his true income.

Thank you for your letter. You seem to be saying that you are in the process of divorce proceedings, because you said you are pending the divorce decree. But I'm not sure if you mean instead that you intend to file for it soon.

I understand that you and the two children of the marriage are living in the United States, you being a naturalised US citizen and that they will continue to reside there with you. Your husband on the other hand is now living in Jamaica, after he was deported from the USA. You wish to know how in these circumstances you can obtain child support for the children.

You seem to have information that he is living very well here. If this is the case, he can definitely afford to provide for his children. You say he is inclined to conceal his true income which is not an unusual act but is in fact par for the course.

How then can you obtain child support for your children? Well, you must contact an attorney-at-law here and retain her/him to prepare the application for you so that your husband will be ordered to provide for the maintenance of his children. You should be prepared to consider the matter of his having access to the children. This could be as a result of the judge requiring the inclusion of an order for access (following an amendment to the application), or because your husband applies for it. A court in dealing with issues relating to children will and must act in their best interest. As a result questions will be asked about his access to the children, and unless he does not want this or there are good and cogent reasons why they should not spend time here (like if the environment would be harmful to their welfare) with him, it will arise and be dealt with.

You must provide all the information about your children and what expenses you have to meet to provide for their necessary living expenses to your retained attorney here. In other words, itemise all their needs and put the exact or approximate cost or sum beside each item. You should not forget to include their entertainment as an item and include "miscellaneous" as one also to cover small and unexpected expenditures for the children. You must also tell the attorney everything you know about your husband's assets and income here and you must state what your income is as well.

Remember, you and your husband are obliged to provide for your children's maintenance, not in equal proportions, but apportioned according to each parent's financial situation. So, if he is financially better off than you are, his proportional contribution to the total of the children's maintenance needs would be greater than yours, or vice versa if you are in a better financial position than your husband.

I advise you to act on this as soon as possible. The orders sought can also direct him to pay the sums he is ordered to pay for the children into a bank account (which you will have to open here and which can convert and transfer it for you). If he fails to do so on any occasion - say for two or three months, you can proceed against him for his default, which would be a contempt of court. The court has made powers about how it can deal with him depending on the circumstances, but whatever it does to him when he is in arrears it will ensure that he pays the arrears due to you for the children's maintenance and enjoin him to meet his payment of the current months as well.

Good luck and take action as soon as possible.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law and a women's and children's rights advocate. Send questions and comments via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com. We regret we cannot provide personal responses.

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Can a deportee be made to pay child support?