D.O.J. Moves To Revoke Business And Driver’s Licenses Of 25 Deadbeat Dads

ST. CROIX — Attorney General Claude Walker made known through a statement issued on Sunday that the Department of Justice was in the process of revoking the driver’s and business licenses of 25 delinquent parents — all of them fathers — who had failed to adhere to D.O.J.’s call of coming into compliance with the territory’s child support laws.

The move comes as part of D.O.J.’s Operation Support Our Children effort, which was announced in September 2015, and revealed that over 1,700 parents — most of the fathers — owed more than $29 million in child support. Speaking to the initiative’s success, Governor Kenneth Mapp revealed during his State of the Territory address that over $1.8 million had been collected by D.O.J., and lauded Mr. Walker for his efforts. And just last month, D.O.J., continuing its ardent push, released the names of 130 people who collectively had over $600,000 waiting to be collected.

Delinquent parents were given a 30-day amnesty to at least enroll into a payment plan. But while the general response has been “splendid,” according to Mr. Walker, there remains “a minority [that] has given us a negative response, or demonstrated a complete lack of interest in this amnesty initiative, despite sending these parents actual written notice,” he said.

“Therefore, for the sake of our children, the D.O.J. must now adopt an adversarial position by taking regulatory enforcement action against 25 parents,” he added. “On Monday, March 7th, these delinquent parents will have their driver’s license, as well as a professional or business license, if they have one, [revoked]. They owe very large amounts, some as high as $179,000, and we know that they have the means to provide monthly child support, but have failed or refused to do so.”

Mr. Walker also reminded the 25 delinquent fathers that their passports would be revoked as well, because of a partnership between the local and federal government, which is supported by federal criminal laws pertaining to child support.

Yet, even with D.O.J.’s tough stance on the matter, Mr. Walker said community outreach will continue, with a strong emphasis on teaching men how to become better fathers. To that end, Mr. Walker said D.O.J. has partnered with the Department of Human Services to provide fatherhood sessions to 60 non-custodial fathers beginning in April.

“Studies have shown that at first, participants in fatherhood sessions view the classes as passé, but that view radically changes as the sessions progress,” Mr. Walker said. He also cited data from a 2013 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study that links deep-seated poverty, teen pregnancy, substance abuse and other social problems to the absence of fathers in their children’s lives.

“These sessions will be conducted by highly-trained professionals with a proven track record, and we also reached out to a number of clergy and faith-based representatives to get them come out of the sanctuary by getting into the trenches to fight this war, and their response has been overwhelming – they are very eager to participate,” Mr. Walker said. “The intent of these formal sessions is to help fathers to become better fathers, and when that happens, we will see a depreciable decline in many of social ills that the Virgin Islands face today.”