Did police officers in minnesota quit and join ICE and if so, how many?

1. What the viral claims say — and where they come from

Social posts that circulated in mid-January asserted that as many as 24 Minneapolis officers resigned and that 18 had already joined ICE, a claim visible on platforms including Threads and widely reshared across social media ^[2]; Hindustan Times summarized those viral assertions and highlighted the specific numbers being repeated online ^[1].

2. What mainstream reporting and authorities say instead

Major news outlets and city or federal law‑enforcement spokespeople have not substantiated the social‑media numbers: Hindustan Times reported that neither the Minneapolis Police Department nor ICE has confirmed any Minneapolis officers quit to join ICE ^[1], and mainstream journalism on the situation has focused on federal deployments and operational clashes rather than verified personnel transfers from local forces into ICE ^{[3] [4]}.

3. Context: large ICE deployments and local tension, not documented defections

Independent coverage documents a substantial federal presence in Minneapolis — reporting cites thousands of ICE and Border Patrol agents in the area and calls the operation one of the largest deployments in a U.S. city, which fuels confusion and protests but is separate from claims that local officers are abandoning their departments to become ICE agents ^{[3] [4]}. Local debate has centered on whether Minneapolis police should coordinate with or distance themselves from ICE — including MPD decisions to refrain from escorting ICE or providing crowd control in many cases — illustrating institutional friction rather than mass individual migration into federal ranks ^[5].

4. Related personnel moves that did occur — different players, different story

There are verified personnel departures related to the broader controversy, but they are not Minneapolis police joining ICE: reporting shows at least six federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned in protest over aspects of the investigation into an ICE officer’s fatal shooting of a Minneapolis resident, a development covered by NBC News and cited in contemporaneous reporting ^[6]. Those resignations involved Department of Justice attorneys and reflect internal federal disagreement, not transfers from local policing into ICE.

5. Why the rumor spread and the incentives to believe it

The claim that local cops defected to ICE fits a simple political narrative — portraying local law enforcement as abandoning community policing in favor of aggressive federal immigration enforcement — and social platforms amplified an emotionally resonant claim amid protests and national attention; the originating posts lack independent verification and appear designed to inflame or mobilize opinion rather than to report confirmed personnel movements ^{[2] [1]}. At the same time, federal officials and some reporters emphasize the scale and aims of Operation Metro Surge, which can be framed by critics as deliberate provocation and by supporters as enforcement, revealing competing agendas in coverage ^{[4] [3]}.

6. Bottom line: direct answer to the question

No, available reputable reporting does not confirm that police officers in Minneapolis or elsewhere in Minnesota quit their departments to join ICE, and the specific figure widely circulated online (e.g., “24 quit, 18 joined ICE”) remains unverified by local police, ICE, or major news outlets; what is documented is heavy ICE deployment and related institutional strain, plus resignations among federal prosecutors — distinct facts that have been conflated with the rumor in social circulation ^{[1] [3] [6] [4]}.