2026-02-23T13:00:00-0500 / CBS新闻
一位负责向美国移民和海关执法局（ICE）新警官传授正确武力使用方法的前教官表示，该机构为快速扩充人员规模所做的努力，将导致新招募人员在缺乏必要培训的情况下被派往街头，无法合法执行移民执法任务。
“如果不进行改革，ICE将毕业数千名新警官，他们既不知道自己的宪法职责，也不清楚权力边界，更缺乏识别非法命令的培训，”教官瑞安·施万克（Ryan Schwank）在准备向国会发表的讲话稿摘录中写道。
施万克是一名律师，也是ICE的资深员工，两周前刚刚从移民机构辞职。他将于周一在国会民主党组织的听证会上作证。代表施万克的法律援助组织”吹哨人援助”的发言人表示，他辞职是为了抗议该机构。这是第二位特朗普政府时期的ICE官员公开指责该机构及其培训不足的案例。根据国会助手的说法，施万克于2月13日从ICE辞职。
此次听证会由康涅狄格州民主党参议员理查德·布卢门撒尔和加利福尼亚州众议员罗伯特·加西亚组织。此前，联邦移民官员多次使用致命武力，包括1月份在明尼阿波利斯杀害蕾妮·古德（Renee Good）等事件，引发了对问责制的强烈呼吁。施万克的证词可能会加剧民主党拒绝为国土安全部拨款，直到特朗普政府同意对ICE进行多项改革，包括禁止特工佩戴口罩。
“我有责任告诉各位，ICE基本移民执法培训项目现在存在缺陷、不合格且已失效，”施万克在讲话稿中写道。他指控ICE官员在新招募人员接受的培训时长问题上存在欺骗行为。
文件： 2026年2月辞职的前ICE资深员工瑞安·施万克照片（由吹哨人援助提供）
除了施万克的证词外，CBS新闻还获得了该机构内部文件，这些文件是施万克与另一位美国政府吹哨人共同提交给国会的。其中包括2025年7月的ICE警官培训项目大纲，以及2026年2月更新的版本。在这7个月期间，培训时长从72天缩短至42天，多个涉及武力使用的课程似乎被删除。
根据参议院常设调查小组委员会民主党工作人员的分析，这些文件还包括2026年1月的示范日程表，显示至少部分新招募人员的培训时长仅为以前批次的一半。2025年10月的考试清单显示，学员仅被考核四年前成为警官所需知识点的一小部分。被取消的评估似乎涉及武力使用协议，如”从遭遇拘留”和”判断手枪射击”。
监督ICE的国土安全部（DHS）在一份声明中否认取消了新招募人员的任何培训要求。
“国土安全部精简了培训内容，减少冗余并纳入技术进步，同时不牺牲基本主题内容，”声明称。”在这些新改进下，候选人仍然学习相同的要素并达到ICE一直要求的高标准。没有任何主题内容被削减。”
DHS表示，培训仍包括”多个专门用于武力政策和正确使用武力的课程”。
本月早些时候在国会听证会上，代理ICE主任托德·莱昂斯（Todd Lyons）表示，具有执法经验的新招募人员正在接受更简短的培训。
“我们缩短了对以前持证联邦执法官员或特别探员的培训时间——这些人员已经接受过枪支、防御战术和刑事诉讼程序培训，我们调整为更短的项目，因此他们只需接受广泛的《移民与国籍法》培训、移民法和ICE特定培训，”莱昂斯说。
向国会披露的文件显示，ICE预计到9月底约有4000名新招募人员将完成培训。特朗普政府表示，将通过《美丽法案》提供的资金招聘1万名新警官。
根据国会助手在其作证前提供的简历，施万克于2021年首次受雇于ICE。除了培训新招募人员外，他还代表该机构参与移民程序，并在德克萨斯州迪利的ICE家庭拘留中心担任现场法律顾问。
他于1月份首次匿名提出担忧，在提交给国会的吹哨人投诉中指控特朗普政府领导的ICE鼓励现任移民执法人员采用违宪策略。
这一早期披露揭示了一份由莱昂斯签署的指令，该指令推翻了长期以来禁止官员无证进入住宅的规定。历史上，ICE一直告诉其官员，无证进入违反宪法保护。但莱昂斯的备忘录称，当目标是有驱逐令的个人时，ICE特工可在没有司法令状的情况下强行进入住宅。
国土安全部总法律顾问吉米·珀西瓦尔（Jimmy Percival）为这一做法辩护，称ICE官员签署的令状已足够，因为非法移民在美国不享有与美国公民相同的宪法权利。他指出，ICE仅在个人”收到移民法官的最终驱逐令”时使用这些所谓的行政令状。
将与施万克一同出席周一听证会的前DHS总法律顾问史蒂文·邦内尔（Stevan Bunnell）表示，最高法院已裁定此类行政令状违宪。
“警方不能签署自己的令状，”邦内尔在准备好的讲话稿中写道。
吹哨人提交给国会的文件还显示，ICE计划在6月前毕业超过3000名新执法官员。布卢门撒尔在一份声明中表示，施万克发声是履行”道德义务”。
“对于任何对所看到的或当局要求你做的事情感到反感的人，请知道你可以通过站出来发声产生真正的影响，”他写道。
在特朗普政府的压力下，ICE面临着加大逮捕和驱逐力度的巨大压力，该政府承诺监督美国历史上最大规模的驱逐行动。去年，白宫副幕僚长斯蒂芬·米勒（Stephen Miller）表示，ICE每天至少应进行3000次逮捕。
在特朗普重返白宫的第一年，ICE实施了近40万次逮捕，约每天1000次，远低于3000次的目标，但也高于2024年平均每天300次的水平。根据CBS新闻获得的内部DHS文件，不到14%的被捕者有暴力犯罪记录。总体而言，过去一年ICE逮捕的人中，60%有刑事指控或定罪，约40%除民事移民违规外没有任何犯罪记录。
ICE whistleblower warns new recruits are receiving “defective” training
2026-02-23T13:00:00-0500 / CBS News
A former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement instructor responsible for educating new ICE officers on proper use of force said the agency’s efforts to rapidly scale up its ranks will place recruits on the streets without the training they need to lawfully carry out immigration enforcement.
“Without reform, ICE will graduate thousands of new officers who do not know their constitutional duty, do not know the limits of their authority, and do not have the training to recognize an unlawful order,” wrote the instructor, Ryan Schwank, in an excerpt of prepared remarks he planned to deliver before Congress.
Schwank, an attorney and career ICE employee who resigned from the immigration agency less than two weeks ago, is set to testify on Monday at a hearing organized by congressional Democrats. A spokesperson for Whistleblower Aid, the legal group representing Schwank, said he quit the agency in protest. It stands as one of the first instances of an ICE official who has served under the second Trump administration publicly rebuking the agency and the adequacy of its training. Schwank resigned from ICE on Feb. 13, according to congressional aides.
The hearing, organized by Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Rep. Robert Garcia of California, comes as calls for accountability grow in the wake of several incidents where federal immigration officers have deployed deadly force, including the January killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. Schwank’s testimony will likely fuel Democrats’ refusal to fund the Department of Homeland Security until the Trump administration agrees to a number of reforms for ICE, including a prohibition on agents wearing masks.
“I am duty bound to tell you the ICE Basic Immigration Enforcement Training Program is now deficient, defective, and broken,” Schwank wrote in his prepared remarks. He alleged ICE officials are lying about the amount of training new recruits receive.
File: Ryan Schwank, a former career ICE employee who resigned in February 2026. Photo provided by Whistleblower Aid
In addition to Schwank’s testimony, CBS News obtained internal agency documents that were part of a disclosure he and a second U.S. government whistleblower shared with Congress. They include a July 2025 syllabus for the ICE officer training program, and an updated one dated February 2026. Within the 7-month span, training dropped from 72 to 42 days, and multiple courses dealing with use of force appear to be removed.
The documents also include a model daily schedule from January 2026 that shows at least some of ICE’s new recruits are receiving about half the training hours as previous cohorts, according to an analysis by Democratic staff with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation. A list of required exams from October 2025 shows cadets are only graded on a fraction of the topics that were necessary to become an officer four years earlier. Eliminated evaluations appear to touch on use-of-force protocols, such as “Encounters to Detention” and “Judgment Pistol Shooting.”
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, denied that any training requirements for new recruits had been eliminated.
“DHS has streamlined training to cut redundancy and incorporate technology advancements, without sacrificing basic subject matter content,” the statement read. “Under these new improvements, candidates still learn the same elements and meet the same high standards ICE has always required. No subject matter has been cut.”
DHS said the training still includes “multiple classes dedicated to use of force policy and the proper use of force.”
During a hearing before Congress earlier this month, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said recruits with law enforcement experience are undergoing more abbreviated training.
“We reduced the timeline for the previous certified federal law enforcement officers or special agents — where we went to ones who are already trained in firearms and defensive tactics and criminal procedure, we adapted to a shorter program, so they would just have the extensive Immigration Nationality Act training, immigration law and ICE-specific training,” Lyons said.
According to the documents disclosed to Congress, ICE expects about 4,000 new recruits will graduate from the training program by the end of September. The administration has said it will be hiring 10,000 new officers through the funding allocated by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Schwank was first hired by ICE in 2021, according to a biography provided by congressional aides in advance of his testimony. In addition to his role training new recruits, Schwank has also represented the agency during immigration proceedings and served as an on-site legal adviser at ICE’s family detention facility in Dilley, Texas.
He first raised concerns anonymously, in a whistleblower complaint shared with Congress in January, where he alleged Trump officials leading ICE have encouraged current immigration enforcement officers to embrace tactics that are unconstitutional.
That earlier disclosure revealed a directive signed by Lyons reversing longstanding rules that barred officers from entering homes without judicial warrants. Historically, ICE told its officers these warrantless entries violated constitutional protections. But Lyons’ memo stated ICE agents could forcibly enter homes, without a judicial warrant, when they are targeting an individual with a deportation order.
Department of Homeland Security general counsel Jimmy Percival has defended the practice, arguing that warrants signed by ICE officials were sufficient because immigrants in the U.S. illegally aren’t afforded the same constitutional rights as U.S. citizens. He noted ICE only uses these so-called administrative warrants when an individual “has received a final order of removal from an immigration judge.”
Stevan Bunnell, a former DHS general counsel who will appear alongside Schwank at Monday’s hearing, said the Supreme Court has found such administrative warrants unconstitutional.
“The police can’t sign their own warrants,” Bunnell wrote in prepared remarks.
Documents the whistleblowers disclosed to Congress also show ICE plans to graduate more than 3,000 new enforcement officers by June. In a statement, Blumenthal said by speaking out, Schwank was meeting “a moral imperative”.
“To anyone else who is repulsed by what you’re seeing or what authorities are asking you to do, please know that you can make a real difference by coming forward,” he wrote.
ICE has been under intense pressure from the White House to ramp up arrests and deportations under the Trump administration, which has promised to oversee the largest deportation in American history. Last year, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller said ICE should carry out a minimum of 3,000 arrests per day.
In President Trump’s first year back in the White House, ICE carried out nearly 400,000 arrests, or roughly 1,000 per day, well below the 3,000 target but also up from the 300 average in 2024. According to an internal DHS document obtained by CBS News, less than 14% of arrestees had violent criminal records. Overall, 60% of those arrested by ICE over the past year had criminal charges or convictions, and about 40% did not have any criminal records, beyond civil immigration violations.