Office of the Attorney General, Saipan – The Child Support Enforcement Unit (CSEU) of the Office of the Attorney General joins in celebrating the national campaign of Child Support Awareness Month. This campaign aims to spread awareness that children need financial support and services. Every child needs the financial and emotional support of both parents and their families and the community at large. The Office of the Attorney General CSEU works diligently to obtain the financial support necessary to raise, support, and improve each child’s overall well-being.
Currently, the Office of the Attorney General CSEU assists parents and custodians with interstate child support cases. An interstate child support case is between two parents who live in different states. For example, one parent resides in the CNMI, while the other parent resides in Guam or somewhere in the United States. The CSEU currently handles over 163 active child support cases and remains committed to strengthening its services by actively exploring opportunities to expand their reach and effectiveness to better serve our community.
In 2024, CSEU collected and distributed a total of $486,630.34 in child support. This substantial amount encompasses $462,827.41 from non-custodial parents’ monthly child support orders, $11,065.15 from Tax Rebates/Refunds, $6,161.78 from Child Tax, and $6,576.00 from the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
So far in 2025, the CSEU has collected and distributed a total of $151,854.75 in child support. This amount includes $139,215.87 obtained from non-custodial parents, $10,060.88 from tax rebates/refunds, and $2,578.00 from the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
“It is important that we raise awareness and remind our community that children need our support to live a decent life and to be successful. Our office will continue to exert all efforts to ensure that each child receives the financial resources necessary for their growth and stability. To ensure the success and well-being of our children it takes our whole community, from non-custodial parents, neighbors, friends, and employers alike to achieve this goal.” says Attorney General Edward Manibusan.
The CSEU is strengthening our enforcement efforts to ensure children receive the child support ordered by the court. The CESU is committed to working collaboratively with non-custodial parents to establish manageable payment plans to assist in fulfilling their support obligation. Additionally, the CSEU also assists parents with modification of child support orders if circumstances have significantly changed.
CONSEQUENCES OF NON-PAYMENTS: Public Law 20-47 empowers the enforcement of child support orders by implementing the suspension of various licenses, including but not limited to driver’s licenses and hunting and fishing licenses, as a consequence of non-payment of child support obligations. The Office of the Attorney General CSEU is establishing a protocol to initiate the revocation of licenses in accordance with the enforcement of Public Law 20-47.
The Office of the General CSEU has partnered with the Department of Labor and the CNMI Judiciary to establish a Responsible Parent Court. This partnership is an effort to remove barriers to non-custodial parents paying their child support by providing supportive services through the WIA Program. The Court will have regular reviews of child support cases to assist non-custodial parents and increase accountability.
The CSEU emphasizes once again, the importance of employers’ adherence to PL 20-60 (State Directory of New Hires), which mandates the reporting of comprehensive employee information. This includes data on current employees, new hires, as well as resignations within businesses. The provision of such details equips the CSEU with the necessary information to facilitate and bolster our child support enforcement capabilities.
The Office of the Attorney General encourages the community to take an active role in helping all children to live a happy life and receive the financial support they need. For more information regarding the Child Support services of the Office of the Attorney General, please contact 670-237-7500 or you can visit our website www.cnmioag.org