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Harmeet Dhillon

Harmeet Dhillon

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice

Appears in 5 stories

Born: 1969 (age 57 years), Chandigarh, India
Spouse: Sarvjit Randhawa (m. ?–2024)
Party: Republican Party
Parents: Tejpal Singh Dhillon and Parminder Kaur Dhillon
Office: Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice

Stories

Trump DOJ launches federal investigation into 2020 Georgia election

Rule Changes

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights - Leading DOJ voter data collection effort

About a week after FBI agents seized 700 boxes of 2020 election ballots from a Fulton County warehouse on January 28, 2026, the Georgia Senate passed a resolution on February 1 urging Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to comply with DOJ demands for unredacted voter data, despite his refusal citing state privacy laws. The seizure—authorized by a federal magistrate judge—continues despite prior court rejections of fraud claims, with FBI Director Kash Patel defending the probable cause and revealing President Trump personally thanked agents via speakerphone arranged by DNI Tulsi Gabbard.

Updated Feb 5

Federal fight for state voter rolls

Rule Changes

Assistant Attorney General, DOJ Civil Rights Division - Leading the litigation campaign

The Justice Department wants every state's unredacted voter file—names, addresses, dates of birth, driver's license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers for roughly 160 million registered voters. Since May 2025, DOJ has demanded these records from at least 44 states. Twenty-five jurisdictions refused and are now being sued. In late January 2026, Attorney General Pam Bondi escalated tactics by conditioning the removal of ICE and CBP agents from Minneapolis on Minnesota providing voter rolls and welfare data, drawing accusations of coercion from state officials and Senate Democrats.

Updated Feb 4

Federal immigration showdown in Minnesota

Force in Play

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, DOJ - Leading DOJ civil rights investigation into church protest

The Department of Homeland Security deployed 3,000 federal agents to Minneapolis in what it calls the largest immigration enforcement operation in U.S. history. Two months in, two U.S. citizens are dead—Renee Good, 37, shot January 7, and Alexander Pretti, 37, an ICU nurse shot January 24—both killed after DHS claims of self-defense that witness videos contradict. Within 72 hours of Pretti's death, President Trump removed Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino and dispatched Border Czar Tom Homan to take direct control. Homan arrived January 27, met with Governor Walz and Mayor Frey, and announced January 29 that federal withdrawal depends on state cooperation—specifically access to undocumented immigrants in jails and prisons. Bovino departed Minnesota January 28. On January 30, activists executed a 'National Shutdown'—a nationwide day of no work, no school, no shopping—protesting the operation, with hundreds of Minnesota businesses closing and student walkouts across all 50 states. That same day, Attorney General Keith Ellison publicly denied Homan's claims that they had reached any agreement on jail access, calling Homan's statements misleading. Hours later, the Justice Department announced a federal civil rights investigation into Pretti's death, though Trump undercut the gesture by calling Pretti an 'agitator and, perhaps, insurrectionist' in a 1:26 a.m. social media post after video emerged of an earlier confrontation with agents.

Updated Jan 31

ICE blocks congressional oversight after fatal Minneapolis shooting

Force in Play

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights - Facing mass resignations after refusing to investigate ICE shooting

Three Minnesota congresswomen walked into a Minneapolis ICE detention center on January 10, were allowed entry, then were ordered out minutes later. They'd come to inspect conditions after an ICE agent shot 37-year-old U.S. citizen Renee Good in the head three days earlier during what the Trump administration called the largest immigration enforcement operation ever. DHS cited a seven-day notice rule that a federal judge had already blocked as illegal—a policy DHS Secretary Kristi Noem secretly signed the day after Good's killing. When Democrats sought emergency court intervention, Judge Jia Cobb refused to block the policy on January 20, ruling on procedural grounds while explicitly declining to find the policy lawful.

Updated Jan 30

ICE shoots American mother, ignites mass uprising

Force in Play

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights - Declined to investigate Good shooting, triggered mass resignations

ICE agent Jonathan Ross fired three shots in 700 milliseconds, killing 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in her car on a Minneapolis street. Good was a U.S. citizen, a mother of three, standing with her wife to support neighbors during Trump's self-proclaimed "largest immigration operation ever"—2,000 federal agents deployed to Minnesota. Federal officials claim she tried to run over Ross. Minneapolis officials who reviewed video footage called that story "bullshit." Within a week, the Trump administration announced deployment of 1,000 additional federal officers to Minnesota, prompting the state and its two largest cities to file federal lawsuits challenging the enforcement surge.

Updated Jan 13