WASHINGTON- New whistleblower documents detail substantial cuts by the Trump administration to training requirements for new immigration agents.
Among the cuts are the elimination of practical exams, use of force and legal training courses, and an overall reduction in training time, contrary to one official's testimony before Congress earlier this month.
The documents, provided to Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) by Department of Homeland Security whistleblowers, were publicly disclosed ahead of a forum Monday with Democratic members of Congress, the third in recent weeks investigating what members consider abusive and illegal tactics used by federal agents.
Lauren Bis, deputy assistant secretary for public affairs at Homeland Security, said no training hours have been cut.
“Our officers receive extensive firearms training, are taught de-escalation tactics, and receive comprehensive instruction on the Fourth and Fifth Amendment,” he said. “The training does not end after graduating from the academy. Recruits receive a rigorous on-the-job training program that is followed and monitored.”
Earlier this month, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons testified before Congress that while the agency had reduced the number of training days from 75 to 42, “we went from five days a week to six days a week. Five days a week were five eight-hour days and we've gone to six 12-hour days.”
But the documents appear to contradict Lyons' testimony.
“The schedules reflected in these documents indicate that current ICE recruits receive nearly 250 fewer hours of training than previous recruit cohorts,” according to a 90-page memo from the minority staff of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Blumenthal is the top Democrat on that committee.
Blumenthal's office also revealed the identity of a whistleblower: Ryan Schwank, an attorney who recently served as an instructor for new Immigration and Customs Enforcement recruits at the ICE Academy within the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Georgia.
Schwank, who resigned on Feb. 13, is one of two whistleblowers who made a confidential disclosure to Blumenthal's office last month about an ICE policy that allows agents to forcibly enter people's homes without a warrant.
In his testimony Monday, Schwank said that over the past five months he watched ICE leaders dismantle its training program. What remains, he said, is a “dangerous shell.”
Schwank said Homeland Security leaders' claim that cadets receive the same training in a shorter period of time “is a lie.”
“This means that cadets are not taught what it means to be objectively reasonable, the same standard that the law requires them to meet when deciding whether or not to use deadly force,” he said. “Our job as instructors is to teach them so well that they can make split-second decisions about what they can and cannot do in life-or-death situations. However, in the name of producing an endless stream of officers, DHS leadership has dismantled the academic and practical tests we need to know if cadets can do their jobs safely and legally.”
Schwank said he was shown the secret memo authorizing forced entry into his home on his first day as a training instructor. He was told to teach its content but not to take notes on it or discuss its existence.
“Never in my career have I received an order so blatantly illegal, nor conveyed in such a disturbing manner,” he said. “Incredibly, my supervisor secretly showed me this memo and made sure I understood that disobedience would cost me my job.”
“So, in effect, you, as a law instructor, were told that you had to train ICE agents on how to break the law,” Blumenthal told Schwank.
Schwank told Blumenthal that the reason he received the training position was because the lawyer who held the position before him had been forced to resign because of his refusal to teach the contents of the memo.
Another witness at the forum was Teyana Gibson Brown, whose husband, Garrison Gibson, was arrested in Minneapolis last month after officers burst through her door with guns drawn. She said she and her husband repeatedly asked to see a court order, but were ignored.
“I heard the door open and realized we were no longer protected,” he said. “Ten officers, all armed, were standing in front of me and my family. Words will never be enough to describe the type of horror we felt in that moment.”
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) said the idea that “ICE wants to write its own permit, without a judge, to break down your door and violate your rights” should terrify all Americans. Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, led the forum with Blumenthal.
Blumenthal's office did not confirm whether Schwank or the other whistleblower, who remains anonymous, provided the documents that were released Monday and included in the 90-page memo.
The documents show that ICE has eliminated more than a dozen practical exams that ICE agents previously needed to graduate. As of July 2021, a cadet needed to pass 25 practical exams to graduate. Now nine are needed.
The eliminated exams include “Pistol Shooting Sentencing,” “Criminal Encounters,” and “Determining Removability.”
“Now, instead, all of these exams are assessed, if anything, primarily by open-book, multiple-choice written exams and without graded practical exams,” the memo states.
During the hearing, Blumenthal held up a sign showing the two lists of exam topics. The longer list, Schwank told him, was a vital lesson in things like “how to use your firearms safely, how to find an individual you were trying to arrest, much like Mrs. Gibson Brown's husband.”
Testing that used to be closed book became open book, he said. As a result, he saw cadets graduate despite using excessive force in practical exercises.
Comparisons between the curriculum index and general information sections from July 2025 (before the hiring surge) and this month show that ICE appears to have eliminated entire courses, such as use of force simulation training, structure of the US government, criminal proceedings versus deportation proceedings, and use of force.
In a statement, Homeland Security said no training requirements have been eliminated and that new recruits receive 56 days of training and an average of 28 days of on-the-job training. The agency said the training was simplified to reduce redundancy and incorporate technological advances without cutting subject content.
Candidates still learn the same elements that are always required, the agency said, including multiple classes on use-of-force policy as well as safe arrest and de-escalation techniques.
The reductions in training come as ICE plans to train more than 4,000 new Enforcement and Removal Operations officers this fiscal year, which ends in September. One of the documents notes that ICE had graduated 803 new officers in 2026 as of Jan. 29 and projected 3,204 more graduates by the end of the fiscal year.
In its statement, Homeland Security said the agency is prepared to train 12,000 new employees this year, and that most of the new hires are experienced law enforcement officers who have already gone through a police academy.
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) asked Schwank about the new agents ICE has hired.
“Are they police officers who already have this training, so they don't have to worry about it?” she asked. “Are they people who have no law enforcement experience?”
Schwank said the cadets he met really wanted to learn and do their jobs properly, but they didn't come with law enforcement experience.
“I've had cadets who are 18 years old,” he said. “I had a cadet who celebrated her 19th birthday in her classes. We have cadets who don't have college degrees. We have cadets for whom English is not their primary language.”
