Former ICE Lawyer: Training for Agents Cut to 'Dangerous' Level

A former US Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyer who was responsible for training new deportation officers warned Monday that the agency's training program for new recruits is "deficient, defective, and broken." Ryan Schwank's comments during a forum held by congressional Democrats come at a time of intense scrutiny of the officers tasked with carrying out President Trump's mass deportation agenda, the AP reports. Critics, including rights groups and Democratic politicians, have accused deportation officers of using excessive force when arresting immigrants, attacking bystanders who record their conduct, and failing to follow constitutional protections of people's rights.

The Department of Homeland Security is rapidly scaling up the number of deportation officers, raising concerns that it will sacrifice proper screening and training of applicants in a rush to get them into the field. The department denied it was cutting corners, saying new officers get trained on firearms, use-of-force policies, and how to safely arrest people. Schwank testified during a hearing hosted by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Robert Garcia of California. Blumenthal's office said Schwank resigned from the agency on Feb. 13. "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. He also accused the department of dismantling the training program for new deportation officers and lying about what they were doing.

Blumenthal's office said Schwank was one of two anonymous whistleblowers who came forward earlier to disclose a new ICE policy authorizing deportation officers to forcibly enter an immigrant's home to remove them from the country even if they didn't have a warrant signed by a judge. His office also released dozens of pages of documents related to the training of new deportation officers, noting the disclosure came from whistleblowers. Blumenthal's office said the documents demonstrated "drastic cuts" to how new deportation officers are trained and tested. That includes changes to the number of exams new officers have to pass, the classes they have to take, and the hours they train. "The training has been truncated and reduced, both in numbers of courses and substantive policy," the senator said at the start of the hearing.

Homeland Security insisted ICE recruits receive 56 days of training and 28 days on average of on-the-job training, but Schwank disputed that new officers are getting much in the way of on-the-job training, describing the supervision as minimal. Many graduates go to their home offices just long enough to "get their gun, their badge and their body armor," he said. At one point during Monday's forum, Schwank was asked whether he had ever seen recruits use disproportional force during training and replied that he had seen that happen multiple times. He cited examples of trainees accidentally drawing their firearms on each other, arresting people without cause, or using excessive force. Even so, he said, they graduated from the academy.