There are 94 U.S. Marshals that serve at the pleasure of the President and the Attorney General. They typically spend their days executing warrants on federal criminals, conducting domestic and international fugitive investigations, implementing extraditions and deportations of fugitives, protecting witnesses in federal cases or judges and are generally involved in the worst of the worst federal crimes. However, now it seems the U.S. Marshal Service is arresting people for not paying their student loans.
According to Fox 26 in Houston, Paul Aker says 7 people in full combat gear showed up at his house and he was arrested for a $1,500 federal student loan that he took out in 1987. That year the average student loan debt was under $10,000. To put that in context, the average student loan debt in 2015 was $35,000. So, $1,500 seems like a joke to dispatch a federal Marshal much less a full team of combat-ready police.
Still, Aker was taken to court and set up on a monthly payment plan to ensure the government got it's $1500 back from the 29-year-old student loan.
It is still unclear why federal time and money is being spent to go after loans like this but Texas Congressman Gene Green told the station that debt collectors are managing to get judgments in federal court for them. Aker wasn't the first, nor the last. There have been 1200-1500 people in the Houston area alone who have been hauled into federal court for not making payments on their student loans. This while Fortune 500 companies would owe as much as $600 billion in taxes if they didn't hide their money in offshore accounts.
Check out the full report below:
