Borrowers in major student loan relief lawsuit ask court to intervene to waive their debts

The plaintiffs in a major student loan forgiveness lawsuit asked a federal court in California to force the Biden administration to waive their debts in full, in what one of their lawyers called an "extraordinary failure" on the government's part.

More than six weeks have passed since the court-ordered deadline for the Education Department to grant them $6 billion in debt forgiveness they’re owed after having been subjected to predatory practices by dozens of colleges.

In a motion filed Tuesday, the borrowers said their balances and credit reports still have not been cleared, even after the Education Department agreed that dozens of colleges had misled them into enrolling in programs and taking out loans they could not pay back. 

Read more:The Biden administration owes student debt relief to thousands. Many haven't seen it yet.

The case, Sweet v. Cardona, is one of the most high-profile examples of student loan relief the Biden administration has tackled. The lawsuit has dragged on for years, and since it was settled the White House has touted it as part of the billions in debt forgiveness the president has approved.

The case was filed in 2019, and the Education Department settled with the nearly 200,000 borrowers in 2022. The plaintiffs relied on a legal statute known as "borrower defense" to make their case. The provision mandates that the federal government forgive loans for students who have been victimized by the predatory marketing practices of their colleges. 

By the end of January, the plaintiffs were legally required to have their slates cleaned. But tens of thousands of people owed the relief are still waiting, their lawyers said. 

Eileen Connor, the president of the Project on Predatory Student Lending, a legal group representing the plaintiffs, called the delay an “extraordinary failure by the Biden-Harris administration.” 

“Compliance is not optional, there are no excuses, and the administration needs to go to every length to ensure relief is delivered as promised and in accordance with this binding, court-ordered settlement agreement,” she said in a statement. 

The litigation reflects how challenging it can be to forgive Americans’ student debt – even when it’s a legal requirement. It also underscores the political pressures President Joe Biden is under to follow through on his promises of loan relief after the Supreme Court struck a blow to those efforts last summer. 

The Education Department said last month that straightening out debt for the borrowers in the Sweet case is complicated. Older loans are tough to track down and verify, the agency said. Loans that were combined with other loans, a process called consolidation, are also tricky to untangle.

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In a February letter to the plaintiffs, a Justice Department lawyer confirmed that about seven in 10 borrowers involved in the case had their loans successfully wiped away by the deadline. The lawyer said the administration “deeply regrets” the delay for everyone else.

Zachary Schermele covers education and breaking news for USA TODAY. You can reach him by email at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele.