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By: Veronica Henderson, Attorney at Law.
It is not unusual for children living in our region to have parents who reside in two countries. When families are no longer intact, it is quite possible that a child may have one parent living in the U.S. and the other parent living in Mexico. The actual distance between the two parents’ residences may not be more than a few miles, thus allowing each parent to spend time with their child so as to share parenting responsibilities.
However, the existence of a border separating the two nations may make collecting child support from the parent who is obligated to do so extremely difficult. Both countries have their own legal systems, and neither are required to abide by the laws of the other country. So, what can be done to ensure that a child receives financial support from a parent for whom a court in another country has determined that they are obligated to pay child support?
One must first understand how a parent goes about obtaining child support. In California, each county has a Department of Child Support Services. These departments assist parents in obtaining child support from the other parent. A court of law must make a judicial determination as to which parent must pay, and what that monthly amount will be. Although it may be collected and given to the parent who is the primary custodian of the child, the money is intended to be used for the child, for food, shelter, clothing, medical care, educational expenses, etc.
Once a judicial determination of a child support obligation is made, the judgment must be enforced and the money must be collected. How does this occur when one parent is in the U.S. and the other resides in another country?
The Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance (the Convention) was adopted at the Hague Conference on Private International Law on November 23, 2007. The Convention contains procedures for processing international child support cases that are intended to be uniform, simple, efficient, accessible, and cost-free to U.S. citizens seeking child support in other countries. While the U.S has agreed to abide by the Hague Convention, Mexico has not.
Fortunately, Mexico and certain U.S. states have entered into collaborative agreements to assist each other in these cases. Through local child support departments (again usually operating at the county level), binational children can receive the financial resources needed. Many of these departments have processes in place to assist parents in collecting from parents who live in Mexico. In turn, many of these same child support offices can assist in enforcing and collecting child support judgments when the child resides in Mexico, and the parent who owes child support resides in the U.S.
One of the most innovative and successful collaborative efforts to enforce child support orders was developed in Imperial County. Imperial County took matters into its own hands by establishing Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with Mexican authorities like DIF, Mexico’s family development agency. The Mexican Consulate has also served a primary role in this collaboration. The purpose of this MOU was to solidify the long-standing relationship between the primary Mexican and American child support agencies, and delineate each agency’s responsibilities as it pertained to the receipt of child support applications from parents located in the city of Mexicali, Baja California, and transmitted through the Consulate of Mexico to the Imperial County Department of Child Support Services. The objective of this agreement was to outline a procedure allowed under Mexican federal law for the direct transmittal of applications for establishment, collection and enforcement of child support orders between Imperial County and the State of Baja California. The thought was that by bypassing the Mexican Federal Central Authority located in Mexico City, speedier establishment of support would follow.
While these MOUs don’t have the power of a treaty, they do help bridge the border. They create practical pathways for sharing information, processing documents, and coordinating efforts between local offices. In many cross-border cases, these agreements are the only reason anything moves forward and serve as a catalyst to ensure that our binational children receive the financial resources that they deserve.
