Waylon Wong

So how much instruction do new ICE recruits get?

Well, there's been a lot of contradictory information on this, including from the government.

We reached out to DHS for clarification.

Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told us that officers are getting the same number of training hours.

Matthew Ross is an economist at Northeastern University who studies police training.

He says he's concerned that the program for ICE officers has changed significantly in a short amount of time.

One major change in the ICE training has to do with learning Spanish.

Previously, new ICE agents got five weeks of Spanish instruction.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin told us that the agency replaced those classes with translation services covering multiple languages.

It is not clear what those services are.

Matthew and some other researchers studied field training using data from the Dallas Police Department.

They found that if a recruit was assigned to a more aggressive field training officer, that recruit was significantly more likely to use force.

Case in point, in Minneapolis, U.S.

citizen Alex Preddy appeared to be recording agents on his cell phone as an observer.

The two agents who shot and killed him have been employed since 2014 and 2018, according to ProPublica.

But Seth and economist Matthew Ross say they expect the administration to face multiple lawsuits over how ICE and other federal agencies are conducting their immigration crackdown.

Seth doesn't believe that the possibility of costly future legal settlements will motivate the administration to change its current tactics.

For her part, DHS spokesperson Trisha McLaughlin told us that ICE recruits get the same training they always have.

By the way, DHS confirmed to NPR last week that McLaughlin will be leaving the agency.

She's been the administration's public face in defending the mass deportation policy over the last year.