Former ICE Lawyer: ICE Training Broken 02/24 06:19

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- A former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyer 
who was responsible for training new deportation officers warned Monday that 
the agency's training program for new recruits is "deficient, defective and 
broken."

   Ryan Schwank's comments during a forum held by congressional Democrats come 
at a time of intense scrutiny of the officers tasked with carrying out 
President Donald Trump's mass deportation agenda. Critics, including rights 
groups and Democratic politicians, have accused deportation officers of using 
excessive force when arresting immigrants, attacking bystanders who record 
their conduct and failing to follow constitutional protections of people's 
rights.

   The Department of Homeland Security is rapidly scaling up the number of 
deportation officers, raising concerns that it will sacrifice proper screening 
and training of applicants in a rush to get them into the field. The department 
denied it was cutting corners, saying new officers get trained on firearms, 
use-of-force policies and how to safely arrest people.

   Schwank testified during a hearing hosted by Democratic Sen. Richard 
Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Robert Garcia of California. Blumenthal's 
office said Schwank resigned from the agency on Feb. 13.

   "I am here because I am duty-bound to report the legally required training 
program at the ICE academy is deficient, defective and broken," Schwank said.

   He also accused the department of dismantling the training program for new 
deportation officers and lying about what they were doing.

   "DHS told the public the new cadets receive all the training they need to 
perform their duties, that no critical material or standards have been cut," he 
said. "This is a lie. ICE made the program shorter, and they removed so many 
essential parts that what remains is a dangerous husk."

   Monday's was the third public forum held by the two Democrats to examine how 
ICE is training thousands of new officers and the conduct of those officers 
once they're on the streets. Both have been vocal critics of how ICE officers 
conduct themselves. At the beginning of the hearing, Blumenthal thanked the 
witnesses, including Schwank, for their "courage and strength."

   Blumenthal's office said Schwank was one of two anonymous whistleblowers who 
came forward earlier to disclose a new ICE policy authorizing deportation 
officers to forcibly enter an immigrant's home to remove them from the country 
even if they didn't have a warrant signed by a judge.

   His office also released dozens of pages of documents related to the 
training of new deportation officers, noting the disclosure came from 
whistleblowers.

   Blumenthal's office said the documents demonstrated "drastic cuts" to how 
new deportation officers are trained and tested. That includes changes to the 
number of exams new officers have to pass, the classes they have to take and 
the hours they train.

   "The training has been truncated and reduced, both in numbers of courses and 
substantive policy," the senator said at the start of the hearing.

   Homeland Security strongly denied that it has removed any training 
requirements or lessened requirements for officers. ICE recruits receive 56 
days of training and 28 days on average of on-the-job training, the department 
said Monday in response to an inquiry about the allegations made during the 
forum.

   "Despite false claims from the media and sanctuary politicians, no training 
hours have been cut. Our officers receive extensive firearm training, are 
taught de-escalation tactics, and receive Fourth and Fifth Amendment 
comprehensive instruction," department spokeswoman Lauren Bis said in an 
e-mailed statement.

   She also said ICE recruits are monitored on the job after graduating from 
the academy.

   The department has "streamlined training to cut redundancy and incorporate 
technology advancements, without sacrificing basic subject matter content," Bis 
said.

   Schwank disputed that new officers are getting much in the way of on-the-job 
training, describing the supervision as minimal. Many graduates go to their 
home offices just long enough to "get their gun, their badge and their body 
armor," he said.

   Schwank said he had taught cadets who were as young as 18, including one who 
celebrated her 19th birthday in his classroom. Previously, new recruits had to 
be at least 21, but Homeland Security announced last summer that it was 
removing age restrictions on who could join the agency. Schwank said the 
recruits wanted to do well but the agency wasn't giving them the training to do 
the job correctly.

   At one point during Monday's forum, Schwank was asked whether he had ever 
seen recruits use disproportional force during training and replied that he had 
seen that happen multiple times. He cited examples of trainees accidentally 
drawing their firearms on each other, arresting people without cause or using 
excessive force. Even so, he said, they graduated from the academy.

   The documents released by Blumenthal's office show that ICE is eliminating 
over a dozen "practical exams" that used to be necessary for deportation 
officers to pass, according to an analysis by Democratic Senate staff. ICE also 
appears to have cut a number of classes from the training, including "Use of 
Force Simulation Training."

   Deportation officers appear to be getting fewer hours of training overall, 
according to the documents.

   The two other people who spoke during the forum were Teyana Gibson Brown, 
whose husband was arrested by deportation officers who broke into their house 
without a warrant signed by a judge to take him away, and Stevan Bunnell, who 
was the general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security from 2013 to 
2017.