Maine is among more than a dozen states that have filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, Education Secretary Linda McMahon and the U.S. Department of Education over the mass layoff of federal education employees, including all of the staff at a regional office in Boston.

DOE officials announced plans Tuesday to cut almost 2,000 employees — more than half of the agency’s entire workforce. The decision follows months of promises from Trump to dismantle the department, which oversees funding to K-12 and higher education.

“Today’s reduction in force reflects the Department of Education’s commitment to efficiency, accountability and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents and teachers,” McMahon said in a news release. The department will “continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview,” she said.

The layoffs include at least 25 employees at a regional office in Boston, and eight other employees from around New England, according to AFGE 252, the union that represents Department of Education employees. Other regional offices in San Francisco, Cleveland, New York, Chicago, Dallas and Philadelphia have also been eliminated. According to the union, two of those laid off at the Boston office are from Maine. They could not be reached Thursday to discuss the decision.

Twenty states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit Thursday morning in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts seeking to reverse the order.

“This massive (reduction in workforce) is not supported by any actual reasoning or specific determinations about how to eliminate purported waste in the department — rather, (it) is part and parcel of President Trump’s and Secretary McMahon’s opposition to the Department of Education’s entire existence,” the complaint reads.

The states argue that Trump does not have the authority to “incapacitate” a congressionally created agency, and write that his actions with the department violate legislative authority and his obligations to faithfully execute the law. They outline what they see as vast impacts of the workforce reductions, including to K-12 education, federal student aid, vocational rehabilitation for disabled students and the timely distribution of funds.

“Regardless of what alternative resources are put in the place of the Department of Education, the process of the department’s dismantling will create and has created chaos, disruption, uncertainty, delays and confusion for plaintiff states and their residents,” the complaint said.

Maine received more than $250 million through the U.S. Department of Education this year for K-12 education, funding that supports some of the state’s most vulnerable students, like multilingual learners and those with disabilities. Maine’s public university system also receives money through the agency for Pell Grants for low-income students, student loans, work study, grants and research, to the tune of more than $220 million annually.

The departmental layoffs haven’t yet impacted that money, according to the lawsuit, but the plaintiffs argue that cutting half of the workforce will make it impossible for the agency to fulfill its statutory functions like delivering funding and investigating civil rights complaints.

In a statement Thursday afternoon, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey said he joined the suit because the department is responsible for important programs for Maine students.

“The gutting of the DOE effectively dismantles that department without congressional approval,” he said. “Congress has committed these important services to Maine families and I join this litigation to ensure citizens will continue to benefit from these programs.”

Other Trump administration cuts, like those to funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, have been blocked by judges in recent weeks.