A former US immigration training official has accused the Trump administration of gutting essential instruction for federal agents and directing recruits to violate constitutional protections intensifying scrutiny of the president’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
Ryan Schwank, who resigned earlier this month from his role teaching law at the ICE training academy in Glynco, Georgia, told a Democratic‑hosted forum on Monday that he received “secretive orders” instructing him to teach new cadets to enter homes without a judicial warrant.
“Never in my career had I received such a blatantly unlawful order,” Schwank said.
His testimony comes amid renewed criticism of ICE following the fatal shooting of two American citizens in Minneapolis in January, an incident that triggered mass protests and forced the administration to scale back its militarized deployment.
Training Hours Cut, Core Subjects Removed
Schwank said ICE leadership had removed 240 hours from its 584‑hour training program, slashing instruction on the US Constitution, lawful arrest procedures, firearms, use of force and limits on officer authority.
“The legally required training program at the ICE academy is deficient, defective and broken,” he said, arguing that undertrained, inexperienced officers were being deployed to high‑risk environments “with minimal supervision.”
His remarks coincide with the release of internal ICE documents by Senate Democrats, which according to The New York Times suggest the administration cut corners on training as it expanded enforcement operations.
Schwank, who worked for ICE for more than four years, said he resigned on February 13 because he felt obligated to report the deficiencies in the new program.
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