Several leaders of a unit within the U.S. Department of Justice have resigned in the aftermath of the death of Renee Good and the Trump administration’s refusal to investigate the fatal ICE shooting in Minneapolis.
According to MS Now, at least four officials within the criminal section of the Civil Rights Division, which investigates police killings, resigned in protest. Despite video footage seemingly contradicting claims made by President Donald Trump and others that Good was attempting to run over ICE agents with her vehicle, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon decided not to investigate the Jan. 7 incident.
The death of Good, a 37-year-old mother and poet who was serving as a legal observer during an ICE operation, has sparked nationwide protests and even calls to abolish ICE, which has seen a 300% increase in funding in the past year.
MS Now reports that the departures at the DOJ mark the most significant mass resignations at the nation’s top law enforcement agency since the beginning of Trump’s second term. The outlet notes that the decision not to probe Good’s ICE shooting was one of several decisions made by the Civil Rights Division that cause the resignatons of the criminal unit’s chief, principal deputy chief, deputy chief and acting deputy chief.
Kristen Clarke, who served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights under the Biden administration, told MS Now, “Investigating officials to determine if they broke the law, defied policy, failed to deescalate, and resorted to deadly force without basis is one of the Civil Rights Division’s most solemn duties.”
She added, “Prosecutors of the Civil Rights Division have, for decades, been the nation’s leading experts in this work.”
Just hours after last week’s shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Good tried to “weaponize” her vehicle to “kill or cause bodily harm” to ICE agents. Vice President JD Vance similarly said the shooting was of Good’s own making and blamed the “far left.” The Trump administration also blocked Minnesota state officials from conducting a joint investigation with federal officials, which is standard practice.
A week before Good’s death, Keith Porter, a Black man in Los Angeles, was fatally shot by an off-duty ICE officer.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement, “When even due process is made optional and accountability is denied, we no longer live in a democracy, but in a regime that answers to itself. The deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Keith Porter Jr., both well-documented and widely publicized, are not isolated tragedies; they are the predictable outcome of a system that obstructs transparency and denies justice.”
Johnson continued, “If incidents this visible and substantiated are not subjected to full, impartial investigations that genuinely seek accountability, we must wonder how many other cases go unreported, undocumented, or purposefully obscured by an administration that is no longer attempting to conceal its intent to intimidate and silence all who do not conform to its agenda.”
