Did 24 MN police officer resign and 18 of them join ICE

Checked on January 18, 2026
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Executive summary

There is no credible reporting among the provided sources that 24 Minneapolis police officers resigned and 18 of them joined U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE); instead, mainstream outlets document resignations by federal prosecutors and Civil Rights Division leaders over the Justice Department’s handling of the Minneapolis ICE shooting, while social posts have circulated an unverified claim about police defections [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]. The verified, sourced story is about a wave of resignations inside the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota tied to the handling of the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by an ICE agent, not a mass exodus of Minneapolis police officers to ICE [1] [3] [7] [8].

1. What the reputable reporting actually documents

National outlets including NBC News, PBS, The Guardian, CBC, CBS, NPR and The New York Times report resignations by at least several career prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota and multiple senior leaders within the DOJ Civil Rights Division in protest over how the department handled the investigation into the ICE agent’s fatal shooting of Renee Good [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [7] [8]. Reporting largely centers on roughly six prosecutors in Minnesota stepping down and at least four senior Civil Rights Division supervisors giving notice, motivated by objections to political influence, decisions not to open a criminal civil-rights probe into the shooting, and efforts to pivot investigations toward the victim’s associates rather than the shooter [1] [2] [3] [7] [8].

2. Where the “24 officers resigned, 18 joined ICE” claim appears and what it is

The exact formulation that “24 Minneapolis police officers resigned and 18 of them joined ICE” does not appear in the mainstream reporting provided; instead, a social-media post circulating on Threads claims many MPD officers are quitting and applying for ICE, but that post is an unverified social post and not corroborated by the journalistic sources in the dataset [6]. None of the major outlets in the supplied reporting—NBC, PBS, The Guardian, CBC, CBS, NPR, or The New York Times—report mass resignations from the Minneapolis Police Department or quantify officers moving to ICE in the numbers stated [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [7] [8].

3. Why the confusion between DOJ resignations and MPD staffing might spread

The stories run in parallel—high-profile resignations inside the Justice Department and intense public debate over ICE operations in Minneapolis—creating fertile ground for conflation: emotional headlines about “mass resignations” plus local anger over ICE deployments can be reshaped in social posts to suggest police are quitting en masse to join ICE, a claim amplified by partisan actors seeking to portray law enforcement as aligned with federal immigration crackdowns [1] [9] [10]. Mainstream articles emphasize resignations of federal prosecutors and DOJ officials tied to decisions around the investigation, not a personnel shift from MPD to ICE, which is an important factual distinction lost in some online amplifications [1] [3] [5].

4. Competing narratives, implicit agendas and what sources reveal

The mainstream reporting shows clear tensions: career prosecutors say political leadership steered the investigation toward the victim’s associates and away from investigating the federal agent, prompting resignations that critics cast as a protest against politicization [7] [8]. Pro-ICE or administration-aligned sources have defended the agent’s actions and framed the operation as lawful and necessary, and social posts about police switching to ICE may serve political or provocation agendas by implying broader institutional support for federal tactics—an implication that the supplied news reporting does not substantiate [1] [3] [6].

5. Bottom line for the claim

Given the reporting available, the factual record supports documented resignations of federal prosecutors and Civil Rights Division leaders over the handling of the Minneapolis ICE shooting, but it does not corroborate the specific claim that 24 Minneapolis police officers resigned and 18 joined ICE; the only direct mention of police officers leaving for ICE in the provided materials comes from an unverified social-media post rather than established news reports [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [7] [6] [8]. If confirmation of police departures to ICE is required, additional reporting or official staffing records from the Minneapolis Police Department and ICE would be necessary, and the supplied sources do not provide that evidence.

Want to dive deeper?
How many Minneapolis Police Department officers have left the force since January 2026, by month, according to official MPD records?
What official statements have ICE and the Department of Homeland Security made about recruiting or hiring former local police officers in Minneapolis?
How have social-media rumors about law enforcement defections spread during other high-profile policing controversies, and what fact-checks exist?