A whistleblower who passed comment on the state of Immigration and Customs Enforcement believes the agents are inadequately trained to the point of endangering people.
ICE whistleblower Ryan Schwank passed comment on the state of ICE agent training at a deposition earlier this week. The former assistant chief counsel quit earlier this month and has since aired worrying standards within the agency. Schwank says the current training does not meet the minimum standards required of a government agency and said, "Deficient training can and will get people killed.
"DHS told the public that new cadets receive all of the training they need to perform their duties, that no critical material or standards have been cut. This is a lie.
"ICE made the program shorter, and they removed so many essential parts that what remains is a dangerous husk.
"New cadets are graduating from the academy despite widespread concerns among training staff that even in the final days of training, the cadets cannot demonstrate a solid grasp of the tactics, or the law required to perform their jobs.
“Without reform, ICE will graduate thousands of new officers who do not know their constitutional duty, do not know the limits of their authority and do not have the training to recognize an unlawful order. That should scare everyone.”
Further investigations from CNN found that ICE agents are trained for just 42 days, the third quickest training course for federal agencies.
Reports suggest ICE agents are trained and deemed field-ready in just 42 days. This is 12 days longer than US Courts Probation and Pretrial Services Officer and eight days shorter than Veterans Affairs Office of Security and Law Enforcement Police Officers.
Marc Brown, who until 2024 worked as an instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), where ICE recruits are trained, said mistakes usually made in training are being made in the field because of how fast-tracked the training is.
Brown said, "They’re not being adequately trained for what they’re being tasked with. Some of the mistakes you would make in training, now you’re making them in the field."
Deborah Fleischaker, a former ICE chief of staff and Department of Homeland Security official who left the agency last year, also worried about the standards of the agency.
She said, "They have given various answers, and they don’t add up. That leaves even more questions about what the length and quality of the training is that new agents are receiving."