Ex-ICE Lawyer Testifies on Shortened Recruit Training

A former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyer and training instructor testified Monday that the agency's program for new recruits has been severely shortened, leaving officers unprepared for their duties amid a rapid expansion of enforcement operations.

Ryan Schwank, who resigned from ICE on February 13 after joining in 2021, spoke at a hearing in Washington organized by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Robert Garcia of California. He described the training as "deficient, defective and broken," warning that without changes, the agency would deploy thousands of officers ignorant of their constitutional obligations, authority limits and how to identify unlawful orders. "That should scare everyone," Schwank said. "Deficient training can and will get people killed. It can and will lead to unlawful arrests, violations of constitutional rights and fundamental loss of public trust in law enforcement."

Schwank alleged that ICE had reduced its training from about 548 hours to roughly 308 hours, eliminating instruction on topics including constitutional law, firearms handling, use of force, lawful arrests, detention procedures and protesters' rights....