Child Support Roundup Nabs 25 Delinquent Parents

A police sweep of adults who defied court orders for child support payments netted 25 offenders in Smith County. The Smith County Sheriff’s Office, in cooperation with the Texas Attorney General’s Child Support Division and other local law enforcement agencies, conducted the sweep last week. The suspects were arrested on warrants for failure to pay child support. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton praised the efforts, calling child support payments a “fundamental and moral responsibility of any parent.”

How Texas Child Support Laws Work

When a family law court decides on a child custody case, the decision also typically includes provisions for the non-custodial parent to contribute child support payments toward the upbringing of any minor children. The court calculates the amount of child support payments from the non-custodial parent’s net income. The child support payments are typically set at 20 percent of the non-custodial parent’s net income for the first child, and an additional five percent for every additional child from the marriage.

Law Enforcement Teams Enact Child Support Sweep

The child support sweep began early in the morning, when ten teams of deputies from the Smith County Sheriff’s Office tracked down the delinquent parents. A spokesman for the sheriff’s office said that the deputies started at 4:30am so as to catch the offenders before they could leave home for work or other daily routines. The sweep netted 18 parents who were behind in their child support payments. The wide-ranging effort added to the seven parents already arrested during operational preparations in March.

Penalties For Delinquent Child Support

Law enforcement officials stated that the penalties for failing to comply with a child support court order can be severe. Texas law punishes delinquent parents with up to six months in jail and thousands of dollars in fines. Parents who fail to pay child support can also expect the state to garnish their wages, intercept their federal income tax refunds, and suspend their driver’s licenses. Offenders who posted a cash bond would see those funds transferred to the custodial parent as partial payment for their back child support.

Child Support Sweep Helps Those In Need

The law requires that the state’s Child Support Division step in to help families who are currently receiving or have received public assistance payments. The division was formed to enforce a court’s child support orders and distribute payments to the custodial parent’s household. Last year, the Attorney General’s Office collected more than $3.8 billion in child support payments, with $49 million of that amount coming from Smith County.

Source: KTRE-TV

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