Does My Husband Have To Pay Child Support If He Is An Undocumented Immigrant?

Under most state’s laws, a parent has the responsibility to financially support his or her children, regardless of his or her immigration status. Therefore, even if your husband is an undocumented immigrant, he can and will be ordered to pay child support if you separate from him. Your child is entitled to that financial support. The more difficult task, however, is not getting a child support order, but enforcing a child support order.

Enforcing a child support order can be difficult if you don’t know your spouse’s location or his place of employment. If your husband doesn’t have work authorization, then he may be working “under the table” or under a false social security number or name. This can make tracking down an employer to garnish a child support obligation from his wages very difficult. Your husband also is likely to be at risk of deportation if he is undocumented, particularly under the current administration’s immigration enforcement policies. If your husband is detained pending deportation proceedings, then collecting child support will not be a possibility. Likewise, if your husband is deported to his native country, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to enforce your child support order. There is only a small list of foreign countries that have an agreement with the U.S. for the enforcement of child support. Mexico, which is a common source of undocumented immigrants in the U.S., has no such reciprocity with the U.S. Therefore, if your husband is deported to Mexico, you will be unable to enforce your child support order unless he were to return to the U.S.

At Landerholm Immigration, A.P.C., we care about you and your family and want to help you preserve your home in the United States. We focus our law practice solely on deportation defense cases, which allows us to expend all of our efforts in standing up for the rights of those who are facing potential deportation, including those who are seeking asylum. Our California deportation defense lawyers know how to gather persuasive evidence to support your case, as well as how to satisfy all of the procedural ins and outs of the U.S. immigration system. Allow us to handle your deportation case by contacting us today to schedule your legal consultation.