U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.’ (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and 16 other Democratic state Attorneys General filed a lawsuit against Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos for freezing regulations meant to protect students from predatory colleges. The rule, which would have erased federal student loan debt accrued from schools that acted fraudulently, was set to go into effect on July 1.

Led by Massachusetts, the lawsuit was filed in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C. against DeVos and the Department of Education on Thursday.

The suit accuses DeVos of illegally delaying the Obama-era rules known as “borrower defense” that sought to make it easier for defrauded student loan borrowers to seek debt forgiveness. The regulations also prohibited colleges from requiring students to resolve complaints through arbitration, which had prevented some from taking legal action, and formalized a system for the Department of Education to make predatory colleges pick up the tab for loan forgiveness, rather than taxpayers.

The attorneys general write that the rule was created as a response to a litany of investigations and lawsuits against for-profit colleges for “unfair and harassing recruitment tactics, false and misleading representations to consumers and prospective students designed to induce enrollment in the schools, the recruitment and enrollment of students unable to benefit from the education sought, and the creation, guarantee, and funding of predatory private student loans.”

They say that the decision to postpone its implementation did not consider the “significant injuries that students will suffer due to the delay of the Rule.”

In a separate suit on Thursday, consumer groups Public Citizen and Harvard Law School’s Project on Predatory Student Lending also filed a legal challenge to the administration’s delay of the regulations. Both the consumer group and state lawsuits argue the delay violates the Administrative Procedure Act. Both suits ask the federal court to order the Trump administration to enforce the rules.

Politico reports that, through a spokesperson, DeVos has declined to comment while she is reviewing the lawsuit. She had previously called the protections “a muddled process that’s unfair to students and schools.”

In addition to the DMV, attorneys general from California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington joined Massachusetts’ lawsuit.

“Borrower Defense” Suit v DeVos by Rachel Kurzius on Scribd