Armed Marshals Arrest TX Man For Unpaid Student Loans & You Could Be Next

Governments In US, NZ Cracking Down On Debtors

Governments from the United States to New Zealand have decided that the best way to get the money that’s due to them from former students is to send men with guns. In Houston, Texas:

Paul Aker was detained by federal marshals, who serve as the enforcement arm for the federal court system, over a $1,500 federal loan that was issued in 1987. He said that he was sent to jail for a brief period and made to sign a repayment plan.

“There’s bound to be a better way to collect on a student loan debt that’s so old,” Rep. Gene Green (D-Texas) told Fox during an interview with Aker.

And in a far corner of the globe:

Ngatokotoru Puna, 40, was arrested at Auckland Airport earlier this week for defaulting on his 20-year-old student loans totalling $130,000. Puna earned the distinction of being the first person arrested under the country’s new law, which targets people living outside the country who have defaulted on their student loans.

Puna wasn’t allowed to return to his home in the South Pacific’s Cook Islands until he handed over $5,000 and a promise to repay the rest.

“That’s my first time in a police cell. It was unbelievable,” he said. “I don’t think I’m a criminal.”

A person convicted under New Zealand’s new anti-default ordinance could face three months in prison and a $2000 fine. And to pay that fine, debtors should — what? Put it on a credit card?

UPI reports, “Unpaid student loans are not just a problem in New Zealand. Outstanding student loan debt in the United States has hit $1.3 trillion, with some $103 billion in default. The average individual student loan debt is about $30,000.” Which is why the Feds are getting serious here too, although this automatic weaponry degree of seriousness seems both new and uncalled for. People who aren’t able to pay back their loans aren’t usually violent criminals.

One expert who chatted with Mic about the case agrees:

“‘These loans are already more collectible than taxes: the government and its debt collectors can garnish wages, intercept tax refunds, offset social security benefit, and sue borrowers in court,’ Nassirian said. ‘Given the already phenomenal recovery rates, the deployment of U.S. marshals and jailing people strike me as not the best use of resources.’”

Not to mention that paying those marshals and jailers also sets the government back, so in aggressively pursuing these debtors we are, one could say, throwing good money after bad.

The local FOX station that broke the story adds, with something akin to relish, “Our reliable source with the US Marshal in Houston say Aker isn’t the first and won’t be the last. They have to serve anywhere from 1200 to 1500 warrants to people who have failed to pay their federal student loans.”

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