Arrested for $1500 loan outstanding from 1987.
AB Wire
Student loan defaulters beware: the US Marshals Service in Houston, Texas is arresting people for not paying their outstanding federal student loans.
A Fox News report said an individual named Paul Aker says he was arrested at his home last week for a $1500 federal student loan he received in 1987.
Aker was reported saying that seven deputy US Marshals showed up at his home with guns and took him to federal court where he had to sign a payment plan for the 29-year-old school loan.
Congressman Gene Green says the federal government is now using private debt collectors to go after those who owe student loans.
Green says as a result, those attorneys and debt collectors are getting judgements in federal court and asking judges to use the US Marshals Service to arrest those who have failed to pay their federal student loans.
Fox reported that the US Marshals have to serve anywhere from 1200 to 1500 warrants to people who have failed to pay their federal student loans.
Sputnik News noted the arrests are occurring as student loan debt has become a high-profile topic of debate, and a key point in the Democratic presidential primaries. Senator and 2016 hopeful Bernie Sanders has been leading the charge to make state college free for all.
His opponent for the Democratic Party nomination, Hillary Clinton, has refuted his plan, and, repeatedly using GOP frontrunner Donald Trump as a shield, states that she does not believe in paying for an education for the real estate mogul’s children. Sanders’ plan would not eliminate private universities, but would extend public education through college by imposing a new tax on Wall Street.