More than a dozen states and the District of Columbia are suing Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos for delaying Obama-era regulations aimed at protecting federal student loan borrowers, largely from for-profit colleges.

"Since day one, Secretary DeVos has sided with for-profit school executives against students and families drowning in unaffordable student loans," Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement.

Healey, who has been a fierce critic of the for-profit school sector, led the coalition of 18 states and the District of Columbia in filing the lawsuit Thursday.

DeVos announced plans last month to halt two regulations meant to hold for-profit colleges accountable and provide relief to students defrauded by them.

The first regulation targeted by President Donald Trump's education secretary is known as Borrower Defense to Repayment. The rule outlines how student loan borrowers who have been defrauded can apply to have their loans forgiven.

The rule, which was set to take effect July 1, was finalized by the Obama administration in November 2016 after nearly two years of negotiations. The department is currently processing 16,000 loan forgiveness claims.

The second regulation, gainful employment – which is already in effect – aims to hold schools accountable for outcomes of students by requiring schools to prove that their graduates' incomes compared to their debts will allow them to pay back their student loans. Programs that don't meet that standard are barred from accessing federal funds.

The announcement by DeVos sent student loan and consumer advocates, civil rights groups and others into a frenzy. They blasted the administration for a decision that they said would make it easier for for-profit schools to defraud students and evade accountability, make it harder for defrauded students to get their loans discharged, and amounts to a significant waste of tax payer dollars.

At the time, Healey announced initial plans to sue DeVos, and she's now following through with that promise.

"Her decision to cancel vital protections for students and taxpayers is a betrayal of her office's responsibility and a violation of federal law," Healey said in a statement. "We call on Secretary DeVos and the U.S. Department of Education to restore these rules immediately."

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court, alleges that the Department of Education violated federal law by "abruptly rescinding" the Borrower Defense Rule and asks the court to declare the Education Department's delay notices unlawful and to order the Education Department to implement the Borrower Defense Rule.

In addition to Healey, the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and the District of Columbia have signed on to the lawsuit.

In a separate lawsuit also filed against the Education Department Thursday, the consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen and the Project on Predatory Student Lending argue on behalf of two student borrowers that the delay of the Borrower Defense Rule is unlawful.

The Education Department punched back Thursday, refuting the claims laid out in the lawsuit.

A spokeswoman for the department called the lawsuit "ideologically driven" and said the borrower defense regulations suffer from "substantive and procedural flaws" and need to be rewritten.