Here's C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"
Christopher Vondracek (MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE) reports:
A former ICE teacher at a Georgia training center told congressional Democrats on Feb. 23 that new agents are trained to run roughshod over constitutional rights, including the right against a home invasion, and that the federal agency is “broken.”
Ryan Schwank, who resigned from Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Feb. 13, told the forum that ICE is training new agents to violate Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
“ICE is lying to Congress and the American people about the steps it is taking to ensure its 10,000 new officers faithfully uphold the Constitution,” Schwank, who joined ICE as legal counsel in 2021, said in the draft.
The DHS on Monday denied his allegations.
But Schwank said one two-hour program was cut to 10 minutes, “shoe-horned into a lesson [on the Fourth Amendment,” Schwank said, answering a question from Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat.
Klobuchar asked Schwank to go over what programs had been skipped or condensed, noting, “It’s been my constituents that have been dragged out of their homes.”
The Department of Homeland Security, which runs ICE, has said all of its officers were following federal law throughout Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis and other widespread escalations such as in Chicago.
Schwank said he was told to teach officer candidates they could apprehend individuals with only an administrative removal order, not a judge’s warrant — a practice used in Minneapolis.
Rebecca Beitsch (THE HILL) adds:
Schwank countered administration claims that it has maintained training standards even as it has condensed some aspects of its program.
“For the last five months, I watched ICE dismantle the training program, cutting 240 hours of vital classes from a 584 hour program, classes that teach the Constitution, our legal system, firearms training, the use of force, lawful arrests, proper detention and the limits of officers’ authority,” said Schwank, who recently trained cadets at the ICE academy in Georgia.
“They ceased all of the legal instructions regarding use of force. This means that cadets are not taught what it means to be objectively reasonable, the very standard which the law requires them to meet when deciding whether or not to use deadly force. Our jobs as instructors are to teach them so well that they can make split second decisions about what they can and cannot do in life or death situations,” he added.
“Yet, in the name of churning out an endless stream of officers, DHS leadership has dismantled the academic and practical tests that we need to know if cadets can safely and lawfully perform their job, all to satisfy an administration demanding they train thousands of new officers before the end of the year.”
Michael Kaplan and Camilo Montoya-Galvez (CBS NEWS) note:
Schwank is an attorney and former career ICE employee who resigned from the immigration agency less than two weeks ago. A spokesperson for Whistleblower Aid, the legal group representing Schwank, said he quit the agency in protest. It stands as one of the first instances of an ICE official who has served under the second Trump administration publicly rebuking the agency and the adequacy of its training. Schwank resigned from ICE on Feb. 13, according to congressional aides.
The hearing, organized by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Robert Garcia of California, comes as calls for accountability grow in the wake of several incidents where federal immigration officers have deployed deadly force, including the January killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. Schwank's testimony will likely fuel Democrats' refusal to fund the Department of Homeland Security until the Trump administration agrees to a number of reforms for ICE, including a prohibition on agents wearing masks.
"I am duty bound to tell you the ICE Basic Immigration Enforcement Training Program is now deficient, defective, and broken," Schwank said Monday. He alleged ICE officials are lying about the amount of training new recruits receive.
Nicholas Nehamas and Hamed Aleaziz (NEW YORK TIMES) note:
Some of the previously unreported documents released on Monday indicate that ICE officers are now training for significantly fewer hours than they did before President Trump’s hiring surge. Others suggest that several training classes appear to have been cut from the required syllabus, including one titled “Use of Force Simulation Training” and others on immigration law and ICE’s legal authorities.
Together, the new disclosures underscore concerns about the conduct and preparedness of Homeland Security Department agents, who have shot and killed at least three American citizens over the last year. Mr. Trump’s decision to order immigration officers into major American cities has led to a rise in violent encounters with members of the public, leading to fears that poor training for new agents will produce more chaos.
We'll wind down with this from Senator Richard Blumenthal:
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) released a memorandum and previously undisclosed documents revealing new details about drastic cuts the Trump Administration is making to the training and testing of new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) officers.
The documents were produced to Blumenthal via a disclosure from two Department of Homeland Security whistleblowers who have requested that they not be identified. Specifically, these documents provide new evidence regarding: (1) the aggressive graduation targets that ICE aims to achieve for new ERO officers in fiscal 2026; (2) cuts of more than a dozen significant practical examinations which potential ICE ERO officers no longer must undergo; (3) numerous classes which appear to have been wholly cut from the training curriculum for ICE ERO officers; and (4) the drastic reduction in the hours of training for potential ICE ERO officers.
These documents appear to directly contradict representations made under oath to Congress by Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons.
“We know about the Trump Administration’s decimation of training for immigration officers and its secret policy to shred your Constitutional rights because of the brave Americans who are speaking out today,” Blumenthal said. “They are coming to Congress because we have the responsibility to not only bear witness to these crimes, but to do something to make sure they don’t happen again.”
“To anyone else who is repulsed by what you’re seeing or what authorities are asking you to do, please know that you can make a real difference by coming forward. You’ll meet a moral imperative. Our door is open, we are here for you when you are ready, and we will do everything within our power to protect your rights.”
Blumenthal released the documents ahead of a bicameral public forum he is hosting with U.S. Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, on constitutional violations and abuses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The forum will feature testimony from Ryan Schwank, a whistleblower who is speaking publicly for the first time about his experience as an Instructor for the incoming “surge” of new ICE recruits at the ICE Academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (“FLETC”) in Glynco, Georgia.
Teyana Gibson Brown, a U.S. citizen and resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota, will also testify about ICE agents forcefully entering her home without a judicial warrant, breaking down her door and pointing guns at her family. Stevan Bunnell, the General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2017, will testify as well.
A link to the memorandum and attachments is available here.
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