Blumenthal Releases Whistleblower Documents Showing Drastic Cuts to ICE Training & Testing for New Recruits

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) released a memorandum and previously undisclosed documents revealing new details about drastic cuts the Trump Administration is making to the training and testing of new Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) officers.

The documents were produced to Blumenthal via a disclosure from two Department of Homeland Security whistleblowers who have requested that they not be identified. Specifically, these documents provide new evidence regarding: (1) the aggressive graduation targets that ICE aims to achieve for new ERO officers in fiscal 2026; (2) cuts of more than a dozen significant practical examinations which potential ICE ERO officers no longer must undergo; (3) numerous classes which appear to have been wholly cut from the training curriculum for ICE ERO officers; and (4) the drastic reduction in the hours of training for potential ICE ERO officers.

These documents appear to directly contradict representations made under oath to Congress by Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons.

“We know about the Trump Administration’s decimation of training for immigration officers and its secret policy to shred your Constitutional rights because of the brave Americans who are speaking out today,” Blumenthal said. “They are coming to Congress because we have the responsibility to not only bear witness to these crimes, but to do something to make sure they don’t happen again.”

“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. You’ll meet a moral imperative. Our door is open, we are here for you when you are ready, and we will do everything within our power to protect your rights.”

Blumenthal released the documents ahead of a bicameral public forum he is hosting with U.S. Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, on constitutional violations and abuses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The forum will feature testimony from Ryan Schwank, a whistleblower who is speaking publicly for the first time about his experience as an Instructor for the incoming “surge” of new ICE recruits at the ICE Academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (“FLETC”) in Glynco, Georgia.

Teyana Gibson Brown, a U.S. citizen and resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota, will also testify about ICE agents forcefully entering her home without a judicial warrant, breaking down her door and pointing guns at her family. Stevan Bunnell, the General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2017, will testify as well.

A link to the memorandum and attachments is available here.

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