Ryan Schwank Testifies That ICE Slashed Officer Training as Syllabi Show Drop From 72 to 42 Days
ryan schwank, a former ICE instructor and attorney who resigned from the agency on Feb. 13, told a congressional hearing on Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, that the agency’s rapid expansion is sending inadequately trained officers into the field. His testimony was accompanied by internal syllabi and schedules showing training declined sharply between July 2025 and February 2026.
Ryan Schwank at congressional hearing
At a hearing organized by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Robert Garcia of California, Schwank said recruits are completing the Academy without demonstrating required skills. He warned: "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. "
He added a broader warning about the future force: "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. " Schwank also testified, "I am duty bound to tell you the ICE Basic Immigration Enforcement Training Program is now deficient, defective, and broken, " and he accused ICE officials of lying about how much training recruits receive.
ICE Basic Immigration Enforcement Training Program changes
Internal documents disclosed to Congress include a July 2025 syllabus and an updated syllabus dated February 2026. Over that seven-month span, total Academy training was reduced from 72 days to 42 days. Several courses tied to use-of-force appear to have been removed, and a list of required exams from October 2025 shows cadets are now graded on only a fraction of the topics that had been necessary four years earlier.
Eliminated evaluations mentioned in the files touch directly on use-of-force protocols, including courses labeled "Encounters to Detention" and "Judgment Pistol Shooting. " A model daily schedule from January 2026 in the documents shows at least some new recruits are receiving about half the training hours that previous cohorts received, an analysis by Democratic staff with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation concluded.
Whistleblower Aid and internal documents
The materials that accompanied Schwank’s testimony were part of a disclosure he and a second U. S. government whistleblower shared with Congress. A spokesperson for Whistleblower Aid said he quit the agency in protest. Schwank, an attorney and former career ICE employee, resigned less than two weeks before the hearing; congressional aides gave his resignation date as Feb. 13.
The existence of a second whistleblower and the mix of syllabi, schedules and exam lists form the documentary backbone of the claims presented to lawmakers.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Robert Garcia on accountability
The hearing was convened by Sen. Blumenthal and Rep. Garcia amid mounting calls for accountability after several incidents in which federal immigration officers deployed deadly force. Advocates and lawmakers cited the January killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis as part of the context for renewed scrutiny.
Democrats at the hearing signaled that Schwank’s testimony could bolster their position on budgeting: it will likely fuel efforts to withhold funding for the Department of Homeland Security until the administration agrees to a set of reforms for ICE, including a prohibition on agents wearing masks.
Department of Homeland Security statement
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, denied that it eliminated any training requirements. DHS said, "DHS has streamlined training to cut redundancy and incorporate technology advancements, without sacrificing basic subject matter content, " and added the fragment, "Under these new" in the written comment provided to lawmakers.
The cause-and-effect at the center of the hearing was presented plainly: documented reductions in days and hours of training (cause) have, Schwank argued, produced cohorts of cadets who cannot meet established standards in tactics, law and use-of-force protocol (effect). What makes this notable is the combination of sworn testimony from a recent career insider and contemporaneous internal documents spanning July 2025, October 2025, January 2026 and February 2026 that together map the shift in training content and length.
Unclear in the provided context is how broadly the shorter syllabi have been applied across all Academy cohorts or which specific technology advancements DHS cited in its defense. Lawmakers at the hearing pressed for reform measures and indicated budget leverage would be a primary tool if those measures are not forthcoming.
