New Jersey Child Support Program for Mixed-Status Families

Introduction and Program Overview

Children of immigrant parents who do not have documents authorizing residency in the United States are vulnerable to losing support or receiving support erratically. In 2007, the Office of Immigration Statistics under the Department of Homeland Security estimated that over 11.8 million unauthorized immigrants were residing in the United States. American courts are increasingly confronting cases involving the custody of children where one of the parents is undocumented. This proposal is to establish a program that will function as an ombudsman to mixed-status divorced or unmarried parents for the purpose of establishing and maintaining child support payments. The program is adjunct to the New Jersey ChildSupport agency.

It is the intention of the program to support the work of ChildSupport by focusing on a segment of their target population that has proven hard to identify and hard to serve. By establishing an ombudsman program whose work will be highly salient to the courts, the hope is that the program will encourage family court judges to find resolutions that promote positive outcomes related to undocumented status and thereby facilitate the proper and ordered provision of child support to children of mixed-status parents. While the program cannot directly influence family court decisions, the existence of a dedicated resource to work on complex family situations may act as a catalyst to bring together those entities with the power of official influence over the situations faced by mixed-status parents.

States vary with respect to whether they are permitted by law to consider the immigration status of an undocumented parent. Some courts expressly refuse to take parental immigration status into consideration, while other courts insist on considering it. This issue occurs at the intersection of family law, immigration law, and international law.

Mixed-status families may consist of legal immigrant parents with a citizen child, or an undocumented parent with a citizen child. "Both types of families may be reluctant to apply for public benefits for citizen children. Illegal immigrants are likely to fear detection and deportation or worry that use of services by their citizen children will prevent them from eventually adjusting to legal immigration status" (McFarland & Spangler, 2008, p. 259). Family courts that do take immigration status into account fall into four discrete categories:

(1) Discrimination — the family court judge "refuses to grant custody to the undocumented parent" because of bias toward immigration status, or "orders the undocumented parent to show steps toward correcting the situation of undocumented status" (McFarland & Spangler, 2008, p. 269);

(2) Manipulation — the family court judge attempts to "change the status situation by entering orders that will assist the undocumented parent to obtain the status necessary" (McFarland & Spangler, 2008, p. 269);

Problem Description

(3) Obfuscation — the court "uses other reasons as a pretext for a decision that is primarily based on immigration status" (McFarland & Spangler, 2008, p. 269); and

(4) Accommodation — the family court judge "responds to the consequences of the status" (McFarland & Spangler, 2008, p. 269).

Child support concerns are made even more complex when the non-custodial parent is undocumented or is in the process of applying for citizenship. Individuals living in the United States without the requisite documents are frequently relegated to marginalized jobs that pay less than the minimum wage. A primary concern of a non-custodial undocumented parent is avoiding deportation. This can mean that employment stops and starts as the individual without papers tries to keep one step ahead of authorities in order to avoid deportation. Local child support enforcement offices can attempt to arrange support agreements with foreign countries, but the prospects of the custodial parent receiving those payments are more remote than if the undocumented non-custodial parent resides in the United States.

For the custodial parent who is a U.S. citizen, this situation means that child support may be erratic at best, and that efforts to track and contact the non-custodial undocumented parent can jeopardize even the little child support the custodial parent does receive for the care of their children. Children of mixed-status parents are more likely to end up living with a single parent, usually their mother. High rates of poverty are associated with single parenthood.

A determination of the number of children living in poverty depends on which benchmark is used. When the benchmark is $22,350 for a family of four — the federal poverty level — nearly 15 million children in the United States (21% of all American children) live in poverty ("Children in Poverty," 2012). However, research indicates that nearly twice that amount is needed on average for a family of four to meet basic expenses ("Children in Poverty," 2012). Using this basis, the number of children living in low-income families rises to 44% of all American children ("Children in Poverty," 2012).

In the State of New Jersey, there are approximately 1.105 million families with 2.017 million children ("Children in Poverty," 2012). The number of low-income children — defined as living at 200% below the federal poverty level — in New Jersey is approximately 566,428, or roughly 28% of the state's children ("Children in Poverty," 2012).

Program Inputs

In accordance with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (Rennekamp & Jacobs, 2001), program design and development has been accomplished using a logic model. Logic models are instrumental in program development because they provide a framework for identifying program inputs, outputs, and outcomes.

Inputs are the resources needed to conduct a program. They include such things as time, money, paid staff, volunteers, materials, facilities, equipment, and the efforts of partners. Inputs are, in essence, the costs of conducting a program. The program will be housed in ChildSupport facilities and will be charged administrative fees for shared overhead, including secretarial, custodial, and facilities costs. Equipment for the agency will include two computers, a printer, telephone headsets and consoles, desks, chairs, tables, and file cabinets. Materials will include printed brochures and business cards. In-kind donations are anticipated from established community partners of the ChildSupport agency, such as private social services agencies and community service organizations.

The New Jersey ChildSupport program is not a single organization but rather a national commitment to addressing child support that brings together the power of federal and state laws. The program is supervised by the Department of Human Services, Division of Family Development, Office of Child Support Services, and is administered through the individual counties of the state. Specifically, county Boards of Social Services handle cases involving child support. Their work includes locating non-custodial parents, filing complaints with the courts for child support and paternity establishment, and providing access to childcare, employment services, Medicaid, and welfare. County Family Courts schedule, conduct, record, and track court hearings and orders, and address issues of custody and visitation. Finally, the Probation Divisions have the authority to enforce child support orders and monitor payments that are due and have been made.

Financing. The program will be supported by private foundation grant money. Funding proposals will be sent to a number of charitable organizations and foundations, commensurate with established grant caps. Start-up funds will be requested in the amount of $100,000, with an annual budget of $250,000. The largest cost in the budget is personnel expenses, followed by office expenses. Administrative costs are set at 6.5%.

Staffing. The program will be staffed by two paralegals, one social worker, and one program coordinator. All staff members will work full-time and will receive benefit packages as negotiated with the agencies providing these services to regular employees of the ChildSupport agency.

Conclusion

The proposed program will provide ombudsman services to mixed-status parents who have been unable to resolve their child support problems. The ombudsman will support the efforts of the established ChildSupport programs while attending to the particular legal and social barriers faced by the target mixed-status parent population. The mission of the program is to ensure that no child of mixed-status parents goes without adequate support as a result of the threat of deportation or the legal complexities inherent in undocumented status.