A former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lawyer who served as an instructor for new deportation agents testified on Feb. 23, stating that the agency has scaled back its training, leaving the program for recruits “deficient, defective, and broken.”
Ryan Schwank, a former instructor at the agency’s academy in Georgia, testified during a hearing hosted by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Robert Garcia of California.
"I am here because I am duty-bound to report the legally required training program at the ICE academy is deficient, defective, and broken," Schwank said.
Schwank informed Congressional members that ICE has stopped failing recruits on practical exams and has shifted from closed-book multiple-choice questions to open-book ones to meet the demand for personnel during immigration crackdown surges.
"DHS told the public the new cadets receive all the training they need to perform their duties, that no critical material or standards have been cut," Schwank shared. "This is a lie. ICE made the program shorter, and they removed so many essential parts that what remains is a dangerous husk."
The hearing comes during a time of increased backlash for the Trump administration’s mass immigration crackdown operations. Democratic lawmakers, rights groups, and others have pushed back against immigration enforcement, accusing agents of using excessive force, attacking bystanders who film their tactics, and failing to adhere to constitutional protections of people’s rights.
In the past year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE have recruited 12,000 new ICE agents as part of the Trump administration’s promise of the largest deportation of illegal immigrants in the country’s history.
“No matter how badly a cadet does at those practical exams, no matter how many mistakes they make, no matter how egregiously they violate the law during a practical, we graduate them,” Schwank said.
Schwank additionally revealed that ICE has reduced 240 hours of instruction from its 584-hour program, which includes classes about firearm safety, proper detention, lawful arrests, and the officers’ legal authority.
