Ryan Schwenk

The rumors I saw online were that if you reported to OIG, there's a good chance that OIG would out you to your own management.

So you have nobody left to report it to, basically.

I had one group I could report it to, and that was Congress.

So I remember this.

I was sitting in the hotel room I was in, in a chair, looking out the window at the gas station across the street.

And I was like, I don't have a choice.

I have to do this.

If I don't report this...

Nobody is going to report this and it's going to come out years later when people have been hurt because of it, right?

I have to report this.

And so I went through, there was a process for filing a whistleblower claim with the oversight committee at the house.

Back in September, I made my initial report.

I just described in very brief detail what was happening.

And then a couple of days later, they reached out to me to set up a call.

And I started to tell them a little bit about what was happening.

But I told them, like, look, I can tell you what I saw, but I can't show you proof of it.

Oh, man.

I don't have the memo.

So clearly the house would have to vet Ryan's report, which can take weeks or months.

And all that had to happen without Ryan getting outed to anybody at ICE.