Bob CollinsU.S. Marshals are getting tough with student loan delinquents.
Fox26 in Houston reports armed marshals — there’s probably not another kind — have fanned out over the territory to bring the deadbeats to justice.
Paul Aker, who owed $1,500, says the federal agents showed up in combat gear to arrest him.
“I was wondering, why are you here,” he told Fox 26. “I am home, I haven’t done anything. It was totally mind-boggling.”
He says he was arrested, handcuffed, put in a cell for an hour, and then escorted by seven marshals before a judge.
Aker’s congressman says he believes federal resources are being used to help private bill collectors round up people who owe student loan money. Collection agencies are able to get bench warrants from judges, who then order the marshals to arrest the scofflaws if they don’t respond.
[Update] – “We actually talked to him on the phone in 2013, at which time he told us that he would not appear in court and that we would have to come get him,” Richard Hunter, chief deputy U.S. Marshal for the southern district of Texas, told TODAY.
