The US Marshals service has told the press they plan to serve 1500 warrants for the arrest of people with unpaid student loans. These do not appear to be warrants for ignored summonses, but will represent the initial contact between the justice system and the debtor. Thus far, these warrants have been served by teams of about seven deputy Marshals armed with automatic weapons and performed in neighborhood environments. This needlessly creates a very unsafe situation and also seems to violate both the 1833 Federal abolishment of debtor imprisonment, and the 1983 Supreme Court ruling that incarcerating debtors is a violation of the 14th amendment. This petition requests an immediate executive order instructing the Marshals service to cease serving these warrants.
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