Homeland Security secretary says ICE will increase new officer training next month

WASHINGTON (AP) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement will increase the amount of training for new officers next month, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Wednesday, after criticism that the agency was loosening standards as it rushed to deploy more deportation officers.

Mullin’s comments came during a heated congressional hearing when he was asked about when the department would change the training requirement for new recruits from 42 days to 72 days, in a reference to media reports about truncated training for ICE recruits.

“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,” Mullin said. The secretary did not address criticism of the training schedule or comment on why it was being changed now.

ICE officials revamped the training as part of efforts to swiftly hire and train an additional 10,000 deportation officers with an infusion of billions of dollars last summer from Congress. At the time, the agency had about 6,500 deportation officers.

That lead to allegations that the department was cutting corners in an effort to get more officers in the field, which Homeland Security and ICE repeatedly denied.

In February, a former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyer, Ryan Schwank, who was responsible for training new deportation officers warned that the agency’s training program for new recruits was “deficient, defective and broken.”

During a forum hosted by Democrats, Schwank accused the department of dismantling the training program for new deportation officers, making it shorter 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.”

ICE and Homeland Security officials have rejected accusations new recruits weren’t getting proper training. In response to Schwank’s testimony, Homeland Security said officers were receiving firearms training, were taught “de-escalation tactics” and were instructed on the Constitution. They also said no training hours were cut.

During a tour of the ICE training facility in Georgia with reporters in August, acting ICE director Todd Lyons said the agency made changes designed to streamline the process but denied watering it down.

Agency officials said they boosted training at the federal training center to six days a week, added training before and after recruits arrived at the facility, and got rid of a Spanish language requirement.