“This is an extraordinary failure by the Biden-Harris administration to comply with a settlement that impacts hundreds of thousands of people,” said Eileen Connor, President and Director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending, on Tuesday.

Some 195,000 borrowers scammed by their schools were supposed to have their debt wiped out by Jan. 28. Tens of thousands are still waiting.

The federal government says it "deeply regrets" the delay in fulfilling its end of the settlement agreement in Sweet v. Cardona, a $6 billion student debt relief case.

The Biden administration is flouting a court-ordered deadline to cancel the student loans of people defrauded by their colleges, attorneys for the students say.

The Biden administration may be in breach of a court settlement, plaintiffs say, after officials missed a key deadline to dole out student loan relief to duped borrowers.

Advocacy groups for borrowers were critical of the ruling. “This unexplained order from the Fifth Circuit is a gift to those who wish to operate predatory education schemes with impunity. Borrower defense is an essential safeguard that has been in place for decades.” said Eileen Connor, President and Director of the Project on Predatory Student Lending in a statement. “

Now attorneys at the legal outfit Project on Predatory Student Lending are pressing the Education Department to apply the policy change retroactively. The organization, which has represented former for-profit college students in high-profile cases, recently wrote the department after hearing from Ellis and others about their refunds.