On Monday, an attorney and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) instructor, Ryan Schwank, testified before Congress that the agency's new training program is "deficient, defective, and broken," leading to constitutional violations and unlawful arrests. "Deficient training," Schwank added, "can and will get people killed."
The testimony took place during a public hearing organized by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D–Conn.) and Rep. Robert Garcia (D–Calif.) to discuss constitutional concerns following a leaked ICE memo asserting federal agents have the authority to forcibly enter homes without a judicially signed warrant. Schwank, who originally lodged his whistleblower disclosure anonymously in January, resigned from ICE in protest less than two weeks ago, according to CBS News.
Schwank, who was hired by ICE in August 2021, volunteered to train "new, inexperienced recruits" five months ago amid the agency's push to hire 10,000 new personnel. But on his first day on the job, Schwank said he "received secretive orders to teach new cadets to violate the Constitution by entering homes without a judicial warrant." Additionally, the ICE training program has been cut nearly in half—from 584 to 344 hours—by removing "vital classes" on the Constitution, use of force, and lawful arrests, according to Schwank. In particular, Schwank called out the lack of training new ICE agents currently receive on the "objectively reasonable" standard, to which officers are held when deciding whether to use deadly force.
Earlier this month, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons told Congress that the agency's training timeline was shortened during last year's hiring surge, but without compromising the curriculum. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reiterated Lyons' comments in a statement to Reason, and denied that any training requirements have been removed from its ICE training program. Rather, the agency claimed the training has been "streamlined" to "cut redundancy," incorporating "technology advancements" and "on-the-job training."
But Schwank asserted that DHS is outright lying, and that critical cuts have been made to meet hiring demands under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed in July. "Without reform," Schwank added, "ICE will graduate thousands of new officers who do not know their constitutional duty, do not know the limits of their authority, and who do not have the training to recognize an unlawful order." DHS told Reason it plans to train an additional 12,000 officers in 2026.
DHS' training standards and policies have come under heightened scrutiny following the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January, but concerns regarding the agency's excessive use of force and lies were mounting for months prior. ICE has come under fire for several other constitutional violations, including conducting unlawful warrantless arrests, failing to comply with court orders regarding immigrant detention, inhumane and overcrowded conditions in detention facilities, and providing inadequate access to counsel. Now, as claimed both in Schwank's disclosure and yesterday's hearing, ICE agents are trained to enter homes without a judicially signed warrant, violating the Fourth Amendment's guarantee of "the right of the people to be secure in their…houses…against unreasonable searches and seizures."
Federal law enforcement agents, including ICE, are sworn to support and defend the Constitution, and it is the job of the courts and Congress to hold them to that oath.
In the words of Schwank, "Law enforcement is a deadly serious business." Congress is right to use its oversight powers to investigate changes to ICE's training and policies that continue to threaten core constitutional principles and public safety.
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