Alicia Davis feels like she was scammed. As a student at Florida Metropolitan University from 2006 to 2008, she said she was told the cost of her online criminal justice program would be covered by Pell grants and scholarships. She was told her credits could be transferred to other schools. Graduating from the school, a subsidiary of the for-profit Corinthian Colleges, would lead to a job and a decent wage.

More than 158,000 former students at predatory for-profit colleges sued Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and her department on Tuesday, demanding that the Department of Education continue reviewing applications for federal loan relief. The former students had applied for “borrower defense,” which would allow them to have their federal loans canceled if their college misled them or violated state laws. But their applications have been left untouched.

Courts have sided repeatedly with student loan borrowers demanding the U.S. Education Department process their applications for debt relief, yet more than 180,000 people are still waiting for a decision. Now, some of them are again turning to the courts for help. On Tuesday, seven borrowers sued Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her agency after the department failed to take action on their applications, some of which have languished for years.

More than 150,000 former students of for-profit colleges filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday, claiming the agency is depriving them of the student debt relief to which they’re legally entitled.

A class action lawsuit filed in California Tuesday claims the U.S. Department of Education is "intentionally" not processing debt relief claims by students who were defrauded by for-profit colleges. "They don't have any timetable to resolve these claims and it's pretty clear that they don't have any intention to," said Eileen Connor, legal director for the Project on Predatory Student Lending at the Legal Services Center at Harvard Law School, which brought the suit with the California-based legal service organization Housing and Economic Rights Advocates.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is facing another lawsuit over the department's loan forgiveness program aimed at helping defrauded students. More than 150,000 applications are pending, and some borrowers have been waiting years to hear whether they'll be granted debt relief. Seven borrowers, all of whom attended for-profit colleges, filed the lawsuit Tuesday.

After working as a bartender for years, Alicia Davis decided in 2006 that she wanted to take steps towards starting a career in law enforcement by getting her bachelor’s degree. It’s a decision that’s haunted her ever since. Davis, now 36, enrolled in the online criminal justice program at Florida Metropolitan University.

Seven students filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education (ED) and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos over their failure to assess student loan forgiveness applications. Those seven are part of a larger group of 150,000 students who attended for-profit colleges and have been waiting “years” — since as early as April 2015 — to hear back about pending loan forgiveness applications, Market Watch reported.

Over 150,000 former for-profit college students filed suit Tuesday against U.S. Education Secretary Betsy Devos over halting their claims for debt relief. The former students claim that since Devos began her tenure with the department in February of 2017, she has halted students claims for discharge from student loan debt.