For the past few years, the government has been taking pains to collect on Tamara Blanchette’s student loans — garnishing some of the money she receives through her tax refund.

But it’s debt the government shouldn’t be collecting on in the first place, a new lawsuit alleges.

The suit, filed on behalf of Blanchette and similarly situated borrowers, alleges that Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education are collecting on debt that isn’t legally enforceable.

That’s because the Department knows that Blanchette and other students who enrolled in the criminal-justice program at the Minnesota School of Business, a now defunct for-profit college chain, were defrauded by the school when they signed up for the program, according to court documents.

“ The suit, filed on behalf of Blanchette and similarly situated borrowers, alleges that Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education are collecting on debt that isn’t legally enforceable. ”

Borrowers who were defrauded by their schools have the right to have their debt discharged.

“There’s this group of students that the Department of Education knows about who were defrauded,” said Robyn Bitner, counsel at the National Student Legal Defense Network, who is representing Blanchette. “Despite knowing about them being defrauded, the Department has decided to collect on them.”

The Department of Education declined to comment on pending litigation. An attorney representing Minnesota School of Business didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the allegations.

The suit is the latest to shine a light on the government’s extraordinary powers to collect student debt — including garnishing borrowers’ wages, tax refunds and Social Security checks — and the difficulty borrowers face mitigating those powers, even when they have a right to do so. Borrower advocates and even Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat and presidential candidate, have complained for years that the government collects on student loans that aren’t legally enforceable because borrowers were defrauded.

Borrowers and advocates have also alleged that the government illegally collected on debt that they had a right to have discharged because of a disability.

In Blanchette’s case, the Department of Education had confirmed and expanded upon state court findings that her school misrepresented the ability of students enrolled in its criminal-justice program to get jobs and transfer their credits, ultimately banning the school from accessing federal financial aid, according to court documents.

“ The suit is the latest to shine a light on the government’s extraordinary powers to collect student debt, including garnishing borrowers’ wages, tax refunds and Social Security checks ”

Blanchette experienced these tactics first hand, the suit alleges. When Blanchette began taking courses at the Minnesota School of Business in 2009, she was hoping the degree — and the thousands of dollars she borrowed to make it possible — would help her start a new life.

The waitress and single mom wanted to become a probation officer and was promised by a representative at the school that its associate degree program in criminal justice would help her achieve that goal, according to court documents.

But in Minnesota, probation officers are required to have at least a bachelor’s degree. At the time, the school didn’t offer a bachelor’s degree program in criminal justice, the suit alleges. In addition, the school’s representative told Blanchette she could easily transfer her credits to another school, statements the Department of Education later found to be a misrepresentation.

By 2015, Blanchette had left the school, returned to her job as a waitress and defaulted on her student loans, which as of January 2019 totaled $29,418 plus nearly $6,000 in collection fees, according to court documents.

Despite knowing she had been a victim of fraud, the government continues to collect on her debt, including by taking at least $1,906 of her tax refund in 2017, the suit alleges.

“The harm is ongoing,” Bitner said.

Blanchette’s story is just one of thousands of borrowers who are facing challenges in the wake of the collapse of for-profit colleges. Over the past several years, multiple for-profit college chains have collapsed amid allegations they misled students about job placement and graduation rates.

Amid pressure from activists, the Obama-era Department of Education established a process borrowers who were defrauded could use to have their debt discharged. DeVos’s Department of Education attempted unsuccessfully to re-write the regulation governing this process, known as borrower defense. Meanwhile, claims for debt cancellation, which the Department needs to approve, have languished at the agency.