US Marshals arresting people for not paying their federal student loans

Take a deep breath. He’s not going to prison (at least not for the unpaid debt- if he makes a judge mad about something else, who knows).

As for wage garnishment- that’s certainly a possibility, but usually the first step is to get the judgment debtor to appear so that (hopefully) a voluntary payment arrangement can be set up. It sounds like this guy failed to appear despite multiple notices, which is what led to the arrest. Also, wage garnishment requires knowledge of the judgment debtor’s employment (assuming he is employed). Getting the judgment debtor to appear provides an opportunity to ask questions under oath about his financial situation, including current employment.

Yeah, this thread and the article is click bait. They aren’t arresting people, they arrested one person who appears to be a very special case in many senses of the word.

$1200 for an arrest? Probably doesn’t cover the cost. There were SEVEN marshals sent to his home. He had guns. Transported to court by two officers. Court time with a judge (probably a federal magistrate), paperwork by clerks.

If you’ve gotten a traffic ticket lately, you’ll see that the fine may be $100 but the fees that go with it are sometimes 3x that.

This is really a shame … on the entire country.

I think that all federal student loans should be just scholarships — with the fund coming from a special tax on the top 0.1%. This federal student loans, weighing down on students from the low income family, siphoning their low wage after college, to keep the poor students poor for longer time, is really a sin … that keeps the low economic mobility even lower.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/nov/13/us-wealth-inequality-top-01-worth-as-much-as-the-bottom-90

"The statement said “the situation escalated” when he threatened two deputies, saying “he had a gun.”

“After Aker made the statement that he was armed,” the statement read, “in order to protect everyone involved, the deputies requested additional law enforcement assistance.”

Default loans are the least of his problems…

He was arrested for blowing off a direct court order. That happens all the time. You can’t ignore court orders.

Marshals are not “arresting people for not paying their student loans.” Sheesh.

"Like southfloridamom, I also wonder what happened to wage garnishments or liens.

Wage garnishment probably is would have happened - if he had bothered to respond to the court orders and show up to deal with his problem.

But he didn’t.

That other poster was right. This is just click-bait.

Since everyone is entitled to loans, even the top 0.1%, wouldn’t this just be giving every student $5500/$6500/$7500?

"The statement said “the situation escalated” when he threatened two deputies, saying “he had a gun.”

LOL. I didn’t even see that.

this is 100 percent click bait. blah

Couldn’t they grab this guy’s social security once he retired (?). Assuming they had a judgment of course . . .

@dadofs While I agree that loans and college funding in general need a lot of reform, I’d rather this particular change not happen while many thousands of dollars in loans are still going to for-profit colleges.

Really sad and depressing that sites like this would spread this type of hype and disinformation. That is a real disservice to the community.

I expected better. Not sure why.

He was arrested for failing to appear in court…

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/US-Marshals-say-man-wasn-t-arrested-because-he-6834620.php?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link

@skyoverme

Before you, a number of posters already established that Akers was arrested for NOT appearing at the courts.

It was the fox article that was misleading, not CC itself. Read before commenting

I did read before commenting. That doesn’t mean I am not allowed to comment and express my disappointment. Taking the brief time it takes to check on something is a worth wild effort.

Not correcting it after it was pointed out is also an issue is not the fault of the article

@dadofs said:

If you think a bit more, you might realize this is a horrible idea.

It would be lovely if they had garnished his wages. We don’t know if he had a job that wages could be garnished from. He could be self employed or working under the table or not working at all.

To take it out of his Social Security he would have to be qualified for Social Security. A person must have had a job for about ten years total during his working career that paid into Social Security. A lot of people on the margins of society manage to not qualify. Since Social Security is meant to support a very minimal life style I’d hate to see that garnished.

On the other hand, this fella paid off his student loans and wrote a song about it: http://aplus.com/a/dee-1-sallie-mae-back-video?utm_campaign=n369&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

A friend of mine just told me about 5 students being arrested at a SUNY for stealing mozzarella sticks from the cafeteria. She was not kidding either. She said there was an article in the paper about the arrests. Five students in one week at one SUNY. The students will have to hire a lawyer, go to court and will have a record if convicted. Talk about doing lousy things to your own students that could harm them for a very long time! So if a SUNY arrests their own students for stealing a few pieces of cheese, arresting people for not paying their student loans is not the least bit surprising.

Yeah, except that didn’t happen.

Well it did happen that 5 students at a SUNY were arrested for stealing mozzarella sticks. Can you believe it? I’ve heard the most amazing stories about cars being booted, campus police sniffing out dorms and searching rooms for pot and then actually arresting students for very little on SUNY campus. Why would a university go after its own students so vigorously? Why would they want to ruin the lives of students for minor violations. Hearing that made me think nearly anything can happen.