ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Racial discrimination against students un-American: Harmeet Dhillon
The Justice Department is moving to join a lawsuit challenging race-based policies in Los Angeles public schools.
-
Malvika Choudhary - Thu, 19, Feb 2026
- 15:47 EST
- 28
Harmeet K. Dhillon / X/ @pnjaban
United States Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said the Department of Justice will intervene in a lawsuit alleging race-based discrimination against students in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
“Los Angeles County students should never be classified or treated differently because of their race. Yet this school district is doing exactly that by providing benefits that treat students — based on their race — as though they have learning disabilities,” Dhillon said.
Also Read: Harmeet Dhillon warns of action over threats to ICE agents
“Racial discrimination is unlawful and un-American, and this Civil Rights Division will fight to ensure that every LAUSD student is treated equally under the law,” she added.
She said the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division will fight against what she described as illegal race-based sorting to protect the civil rights of all Americans, as required by law.
Dhillon said that the district classifies schools and neighborhoods as “Anglo or non-Anglo,” and that these classifications can affect “the type of funding and education that you’re entitled to.”
It is unacceptable to treat students in the U.S., including in Los Angeles, differently based on their race, or their neighbors’ races.@TheJusticeDept’s @CivilRights will fight against illegal race-based sorting to protect the civil rights of ALL Americans, as our laws demand! pic.twitter.com/mezUkWVIb7
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) February 18, 2026
“This is clearly illegal, and in 2026, we no longer stand for these types of illegal and pernicious race-based classifications,” Dhillon said.
The lawsuit was filed in January in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California by the 1776 Project Foundation, a nonprofit focused on public education. It challenges the district’s Predominately Hispanic, Black, Asian, and Other program, known as PHBAO.
According to the complaint, LAUSD’s decades-old desegregation policy labels schools and neighborhoods by racial composition and uses those labels to determine school funding levels and admissions to magnet schools.
The lawsuit argues that the program first separates students into “Anglo,” meaning White, and non-White groups, and treats neighborhoods with less than 30 percent White residents as disadvantaged. Most schools in LAUSD’s majority Hispanic service area fall under the PHBAO designation.
The Justice Department’s filing states that LAUSD provides additional funding to PHBAO-designated schools, including reducing student-to-teacher ratios by 5.5 students and increasing parent-teacher conferences.
It also grants magnet school applicants an admissions preference equal to that provided for students attending overcrowded schools, effectively treating attendance at schools with non-White students as a comparable disadvantage.
Further proceedings in the case are expected as the lawsuit moves forward.
Discover more at New India Abroad.
Related
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
E Paper
Video
Comments
Start the conversation
Become a member of New India Abroad to start commenting.
Sign Up Now
Already have an account? Login