Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has announced that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will increase training for new officers to 72 days starting July 1, up from the current 42 days. The change comes amid criticism that the agency had shortened training as it rushed to hire more deportation officers.
During a congressional hearing on Wednesday, Mullin confirmed the timeline, stating, “July 1st. We bring it back up. We had to rewrite the curriculum. All training starting July 1st will be back up to the regular standards.” He did not address why the training had been shortened or why it was being restored now.
ICE had revamped its training programme last year as part of efforts to hire and train an additional 10,000 deportation officers, following a multibillion-dollar infusion from Congress. At the time, the agency had about 6,500 deportation officers. Critics alleged that the department was cutting corners to get more officers into the field, a claim that Homeland Security and ICE repeatedly denied.
In February, former ICE lawyer Ryan Schwank, who was responsible for training new officers, described the programme as “deficient, defective and broken.” He accused the department of making the training shorter and lying about it, saying, “DHS told the public the new cadets receive all the training they need... This is a lie. ICE made the program shorter, and they removed so many essential parts that what remains is a dangerous husk.”
ICE and Homeland Security officials have rejected these accusations, stating that officers receive firearms training, de-escalation tactics, and instruction on the Constitution. During a tour of the ICE training facility in Georgia in August, acting ICE director Todd Lyons said changes were made to streamline the process but denied watering it down. Agency officials noted that training was boosted to six days a week, with additional pre- and post-arrival training, and the Spanish language requirement was removed.
