The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has lost about 300 attorneys since President Donald Trump returned to office, as its work and staffing have changed under Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, current and former division officials say. The department says it has hired about 130 attorneys to replace departing staff. Current and former officials say new hires now outnumber attorneys who worked in the division before the second Trump administration, and that as many as 80% of division employees have left. They describe the exodus as a loss of expertise and capacity in an office that enforces federal protections involving voting, housing, education, employment and policing. Dhillon, who took charge in April 2025, has argued that the division’s traditional approach unfairly focused on people of color. She has said civil rights enforcement should not be driven by what she calls “woke ideology.” In a statement, Dhillon said the division is enforcing civil rights laws equally, citing its work on antisemitic harassment, religious freedom and election integrity. She said critics who call the work weaponization are “telling on themselves.” Since the administration took office, the division has withdrawn from or ended investigations and legal actions involving voting rights, racial discrimination and other issues. It has also pursued cases alleging discrimination against white and Asian applicants at several university law and medical schools, and sued Harvard and the University of California, Los Angeles, over alleged antisemitism. A federal judge dismissed the Harvard case in August, ruling that the alleged incidents were too isolated and episodic to establish a civil rights violation. The division has also sought voter information from states and sent monitors to some primary elections, in line with Trump’s focus on alleged voting by noncitizens. State election officials from both parties have criticized the requests as overreach. Judges have rejected more than two dozen of the department’s lawsuits seeking voter data, according to the reporting. Not all parts of the division have changed equally. Officials say housing and disability-rights work continues, including a Justice Department lawsuit against Uber over alleged discrimination against passengers with service dogs or wheelchairs. Former officials also raise concerns about how the division is hiring. Policies adopted after a political hiring controversy during the George W. Bush administration gave career staff a central role in reviewing applicants and recommending candidates. Current and former officials say political appointees in Dhillon’s office have taken a larger role and that some new attorneys have little civil rights experience. The Justice Department denies that its hiring process has changed. A spokesperson said career staff continue to hire career staff and described the 130 new attorneys as qualified additions, many of whom clerked for federal judges. The division was established nearly 70 years ago amid the struggle to end racial segregation. Its enforcement priorities have shifted between administrations, but the scale of recent departures and the dispute over hiring raise questions about how much experience and capacity remain to carry out that work.