ICE plans to scrap shortened training program for new immigration officers
The reduced training period drew criticism from Democrats and former law enforcement officials, who asked whether new recruits were being rushed on to the job.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is preparing to return to a longer training program for new deportation officers, two Department of Homeland Security officials said Wednesday, restoring previous standards after dramatically shortening the instruction period for recruits last year.
The reduced training period drew criticism from Democrats and former federal law enforcement officials, who questioned whether recruits were being rushed on to the job without adequate preparation at a time when the Trump administration is seeking to detain and deport record numbers of undocumented migrants.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, who took over from Kristi L. Noem in late March, has pledged to restore public confidence in the massive law enforcement agency after widespread outrage over the fatal shootings by immigration and border officers of two U.S. citizens during enforcement operations in Minneapolis in January.
Starting July 1, ICE is reverting to 72 days of instruction at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Ga., scrapping a 42-day accelerated program implemented last fall. The change is taking place because the agency has completed a hiring surge that more than doubled the number of immigration officers to 22,000, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.
In a statement Wednesday, DHS did not confirm the return to a longer training period, instead repeating past assertions that authorities did not water down instruction last year.
“ICE officers go through a rigorous on-the-job training and mentorship,” the agency said. "As we have said all along, ICE training does not end when recruits graduate from the academy."
Politico first reported on the return to the longer schedule.
Democrats in Congress had lambasted the agency for the reduced training period, saying ICE recruits were not getting sufficient training on how to handle firearms or knowledge of the First Amendment rights of suspects and protesters.
In February, a former ICE instructor accused federal authorities of slashing training standards and lying about it to Congress. Ryan Schwank told lawmakers that ICE had eliminated 240 hours of “vital classes” from a mandatory 580-hour training program, including instruction about the legal boundaries for the use of force, how to safely handle firearms, and the proper way to detain and arrest immigrants.
At the time, DHS officials denied that the number of training hours had been reduced, saying recruits receive 56 days of instruction before beginning their assignments, along with an average of 28 additional days of “on-the-job-training.”
Testimony from Schwank and internal ICE documents obtained by The Washington Post, however, suggested the training period had been reduced to as few as 42 days.
Since becoming DHS secretary, Mullin has said he would require immigration officers to obtain judicial warrants, signed by a federal judge, before entering private residences. That represents a shift from ICE guidance last year that said officers could rely on administrative warrants, approved by senior agency officials.
As he makes these changes, Mullin has faced mounting pressure from immigration hard-liners, who fear the Trump administration is backing off its mass deportation agenda in the face of public criticism.
DHS is rapidly expanding federal detention centers and hiring new immigration officers after congressional Republicans approved $170 billion in new funding for enforcement last year.
But federal data suggests the administration has begun to shift its approach in recent months, relying less heavily on the type of large-scale enforcement operations in Minneapolis and other big cities that led to a surge in “at-large” arrests of migrants in community sweeps, according to an analysis from the American Immigration Council.
The number of such arrests fell from a peak of more than 800 per day in December to fewer than 500 per day in March, the analysis found. In early April, ICE was holding 60,311 immigrants in detention, the lowest number since September and down from a peak of 70,766 in January, according to an analysis from TRAC Immigration.