Ryan Schwenk

Thank you, Senator.

Thank you, Senator Blumenthal, Representative Garcia, members of the committee.

My name is Ryan Schwenk.

I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution when I joined ICE on August 1st, 2021, as an assistant chief counsel.

I followed that oath for four and a half years, working side by side with ICE officers.

And I followed it when I resigned on February 13th, 2026, a little over a week ago, so that I could speak to you today.

I am here because I am duty bound to report the legally required training program at the ICE Academy is deficient, defective, and broken.

Five months ago, I was asked to teach the law to new cadets at the ICE Academy in Glencoe, Georgia, where ICE is training its new inexperienced recruits.

I volunteered, those without law enforcement training, I volunteered to take on this assignment based on my experience in law enforcement oversight, including at the state and local level prior to my work with ICE.

On my first day, I received secretive orders to teach new cadets to violate the Constitution by entering homes without a judicial warrant.

For the last five months, I watched ICE dismantle the training program, cutting 240 hours

of vital classes from a 584-hour program.

Classes that teach the Constitution, our legal system, firearms training, the use of force, lawful arrests, proper detention, and the limits of officers' authority.

For example, they ceased all of the legal instructions regarding use of force.

This means that cadets are not taught what it means to be objectively reasonable.

The very standard which the law requires them to meet when deciding whether or not to use deadly force.

Our jobs as instructors are to teach them so well that they can make split second decisions about what they can and cannot do in life or death situations.

Yet in the name of churning out an endless stream of officers, DHS leadership has dismantled the academic and practical tests that we need to know if cadets can safely and lawfully perform their job.

all to satisfy an administration demanding they train thousands of new officers before the end of the year.

DHS told the public that new cadets receive all the training they need to perform their duties, that no critical material or standards have been cut.