SPRINGFIELD - Illinois child-support scofflaws could already be prevented from leaving the country. Now they can be prevented from leaving the driveway.

A new state law allows authorities to immobilize the cars and suspend the licenses of the worst offenders among deadbeat parents. That's in addition to the wide array of previously existing threats against them, including passport denial, tax-return garnishment, bank account seizure and even interception of lottery winnings.

"More avenues to collect child support payments means more Illinois children can have the childhood they deserve," Gov. Rod Blagojevich said in a written statement after signing the measure into law last week. The measure went into effect immediately.

The law makes it easier for the state to suspend the driver's licenses of non-custodial parents who are significantly behind in child support, doing it administratively instead of going through the courts. And it gives local officials the power to use tools like the "Denver boot" to immobilize their cars.

It's only the latest weapon in the state's arsenal against deadbeat parents, who currently owe some $3 billion to children. Those collection methods, up to and including the threat of criminal prosecution, netted more than $1.2 billion last year.

The methods include the state's "deadbeat" website that displays photos, addresses and child-support debts of scores of the state's worst offenders. The website is www.deadbeatsillinois.com.

It's a politically and culturally popular issue these days around the country, with states seemingly adding new tactics all the time to catch up with delinquent parents.

"There's been a strong focus on it" in Illinois recently, said Teresa Kurtenbach, spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. "We've taken a lot of drastic steps . . . We're trying to make sure families are stronger by getting them the support they need."

But some say the state is going so far in pursuing child-support debt that the tactics could backfire. When Illinois' new law was debated in the Legislature in August, 24 of the 118 House members voted against it - some saying that suspending driving rights of those parents would make it that much harder for them to continue working so they could pay off their debts.

"Illinois is going too far," said Chicago attorney Jeffery Leving, author of the book "Fathers' Rights." He argues that unrealistic child-support orders by courts saddle many divorced fathers with debts they could never pay, and that increasingly aggressive collection tactics by the state only make the situation worse.

"Most of these dads are dead broke, not deadbeats," he said.

Leving recounted representing two clients recently who were listed on the state's "deadbeat" website as owing more than $100,000 each, but who were later determined by a court to actually owe nothing. "If this law had been in effect, not only would they have been publicly humiliated, but they could have lost their driving privileges and (as a result) lost their jobs," he said.

People listed on the "deadbeat" website last week included former Washington Wizards basketball player Tyrone Nesby of Las Vegas, who owes $285,035 in unpaid Illinois child support, according to the site. The highest child-support debt on the list, $397,722, belongs to Carl Douglas of Chicago. They were among almost 40 people on the list who owe in excess of $100,000 each.

The legislation is SB1035.