A former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) teacher at a Georgia training centre told congressional Democrats yesterday new agents are trained to run roughshod over constitutional rights, including the right against a home invasion, and that the federal agency is "broken".
Ryan Schwank, who resigned from Ice on February 13, told the forum Ice is training new agents to violate Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
"Ice is lying to Congress and the American people about the steps it is taking to ensure its 10,000 new officers faithfully uphold the Constitution," Schwank, who joined Ice as legal counsel in 2021, said in the draft.
DHS yesterday denied his allegations.
But Schwank said in answer to a question from Sen Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, one two-hour programme was cut to 10 minutes, "shoe-horned into a lesson [on the Fourth Amendment]".
Klobuchar asked Schwank to go over what programmes had been skipped or condensed, noting, "It’s been my constituents that have been dragged out of their homes".
The Department of Homeland Security, which runs Ice, has said all of its officers were following federal law throughout Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis and other widespread escalations such as in Chicago.
Schwank said he was told to teach officer candidates they could apprehend individuals with only an administrative removal order, not a judge’s warrant, a practice used in Minneapolis.
"Never in my career had I received such a blatant or unlawful order," Schwank said.
Schwank also said in a run-up to hire more officers by year’s end, courses about legal searches and seizures, the use of force and the limits of an officer’s authority were all condensed.
"Ice made the programme shorter, and they removed so many essential parts that what remains is a dangerous husk," Schwank said.
DHS deputy assistant secretary Lauren Bis said officers received "comprehensive instruction" in both the Fourth and Fifth Amendments and no training requirements had been removed.
"Despite false claims from the media and sanctuary politicians, no training hours have been cut,"‘ Bis said yesterday.
But a memo from Minority Staff of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations lays out internal Ice records showing new recruits are receiving significantly less training than previous officers.
Two weeks ago, Ice acting director Todd Lyons told Congress that while the overall training days had declined, new officers were being asked to work longer days.
But the records in the memo suggest Ice trainees are still working "nine-hour days".
Furthermore, they are taking fewer exams.
One exam cut by staff includes a practice on "Judgement Pistol Shooting", according to the memo. — TCA
