Ex-ICE Instructor Tells Congress Ice Immigration Training Was Slashed From 72 to 42 Days
A former ICE instructor testified to Congress that recent changes to the agency's ice immigration training program sharply reduced classroom time and removed key use-of-force evaluations, a shift he says will send inadequately prepared officers into communities. The testimony and accompanying internal documents, disclosed this month, have prompted renewed calls for reforms and threatened to deepen congressional resistance to Department of Homeland Security funding.
Ryan Schwank Says Ice Immigration Program Is 'Deficient, Defective, and Broken'
Ryan Schwank, an attorney and former career ICE employee who resigned from the agency on Feb. 13, told lawmakers Monday that the Basic Immigration Enforcement Training Program can no longer ensure cadets master the tactics and legal standards necessary for enforcement work. "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, " Schwank said at a hearing organized by Democrats in Congress. He added, "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 who do not have the training to recognize an unlawful order. That should scare everyone. "
Syllabus Changes: From July 2025 to February 2026 and the 72-to-42-Day Drop
Internal agency documents that were part of a disclosure Schwank and a second U. S. government whistleblower shared with Congress include a July 2025 syllabus and an updated syllabus dated February 2026. Those materials show that, within a seven-month span, total basic training was cut from 72 days to 42 days. Schwank alleged that ICE officials have been misrepresenting the amount of training recruits receive.
January 2026 Schedule and October 2025 Exams Show Fewer Training Hours and Evaluations
A model daily schedule from January 2026 included in the disclosures shows at least some new recruits receiving roughly half the training hours of previous cohorts, an outcome an analysis by Democratic staff with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation highlighted. A list of required exams from October 2025 indicates cadets are now graded on only a fraction of the topics that were necessary to become an officer four years earlier. Eliminated evaluations appear to touch on use-of-force protocols, including modules labeled "Encounters to Detention" and "Judgment Pistol Shooting. "
Lawmakers and Whistleblowers Press for Reform After Renee Good's Killing
The hearing—organized by Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Robert Garcia of California—came as calls for accountability have grown in the wake of several incidents in which federal immigration officers deployed deadly force, including the January killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. Schwank resigned from ICE less than two weeks before his testimony; a spokesperson for the legal group Whistleblower Aid, which represents him, said he quit the agency in protest. His public rebuke stands as one of the first from an ICE official who served under the second Trump administration.
Department of Homeland Security's Response and Unclear Remainder
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, denied that any training requirements had been eliminated. The statement read: "DHS has streamlined training to cut redundancy and incorporate technology advancements, without sacrificing basic subject matter content. " The remainder of the department's statement is unclear in the provided context.
Schwank told lawmakers he is "duty bound" to disclose what he believes are systemic failures: "I am duty bound to tell you the ICE Basic Immigration Enforcement Training Program is now deficient, defective, and broken, " he said. He alleged that ICE officials are lying about training amounts, and the documents in the disclosure appear to corroborate substantive curriculum and scheduling changes.
What makes this notable is the combination of documentary evidence and a whistleblower's testimony from inside the agency: the July 2025 and February 2026 syllabi, the January 2026 daily schedule, and the October 2025 exam list establish a timeline of cuts and removals that directly precede the cohort rollouts. Because the reductions include use-of-force instruction and hands-on evaluations, Schwank and Democratic staff warn that the effect will be recruits entering field assignments with less practical preparation.
Schwank's testimony is already expected to sharpen political stakes. It is likely to bolster Democrats' refusal to fund the Department of Homeland Security until the administration agrees to a package of ICE reforms that, as cited in the hearing context, would include a prohibition on agents wearing masks among other measures. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation's Democratic staff has flagged the shortened training and diminished evaluations as central concerns; whether that leads to statutory changes or new administrative directives remains unclear in the provided context.
The exchange and disclosures were published with an update on Feb. 23, 2026.
