Untrained Animals Unleashed on the Public by DHS

The terrifying reality of a rapidly expanding paramilitary force.

Donald Trump and his loyalists are rushing to flood American streets with heavily armed officers who lack basic legal knowledge or tactical competence.

Ryan Schwank, a former Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyer and academy instructor, resigned in protest earlier this month to expose a terrifying reality. The Department of Homeland Security is rapidly dismantling its training protocols to meet the administration’s mass deportation quotas.

These new recruits are being handed badges and guns without understanding the fundamental laws they are supposed to enforce.

Schwank delivered a chilling warning to congressional Democrats during a recent hearing in Washington.

“I am here because I am duty-bound to report the legally required training program at the ICE academy is deficient, defective and broken,” Schwank stated under oath.

He watched the catastrophic decay of the curriculum firsthand at the federal training center in Georgia.

“For the last five months, I watched ICE dismantle the training program,” he testified, confirming the worst fears of civil rights advocates.

The agency’s desperation to double its force to 12,000 officers has transformed its academy into a dangerous rubber-stamp operation. We are witnessing the intentional creation of a rogue paramilitary force that answers only to the extreme right-wing agenda.

The Paper Trail of Broken Standards

Whistleblower documents and internal syllabi provide undeniable proof that the agency is prioritizing speed over safety.

Schwank highlighted the exact scope of this institutional vandalism.

“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.”

The data perfectly illustrates this steep decline in accountability.

Schwank warned lawmakers that supervisors ignore glaring red flags just to push bodies into the field.

“New cadets are graduating from the academy despite widespread concerns among training staff that even in the final days of training, the cadets cannot demonstrate a solid grasp of the tactics or the law required to perform their jobs.”

The administration even lowered the minimum hiring age to 18. Officers are bypassing basic firearm competency.

“What was taken out was 16 hours of firearms training, classes that teach them how to use their weapons correctly and safely,” he testified. The agency intentionally strips its own officers of the skills required to protect innocent lives.

Gutting Constitutional Safeguards

Civil liberties present an inconvenient obstacle to the MAGA agenda. Schwank revealed administration efforts to deliberately strip away crucial instruction regarding the legal boundaries of federal power.

“What was taken out were classes on how the Constitution works. In fact, the class where we talk to the officers and teach them about the rights of protesters was cut from a two-hour program into about 10 minutes that got shoehorned into a lecture about what the concept of seizure is.”

This erasure of First Amendment training guarantees violent clashes between federal agents and peaceful demonstrators.

Agency leadership aggressively pushes illegal tactics to maximize arrests. Acting Director Todd M. Lyons issued a memo authorizing agents to force entry into private homes using internal administrative warrants instead of judicial warrants signed by a judge.

Schwank was explicitly ordered to instruct his teenage cadets on this unconstitutional policy.

“ICE is teaching cadets to violate the Constitution and attempting to cloak it in secrecy by demanding I lie about it.”

He explained that the rogue agency was sending uneducated, heavily armed enforcers into American neighborhoods to conduct warrantless raids is a recipe for disaster.

Schwank grimly cautioned lawmakers about the potential end result of this chilling lack of training.

“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 who do not have the training to recognize an unlawful order. That should scare everyone.”

The Strategy of State-Sponsored Terror

Republicans constantly campaign as the party of law and order while operating a federal agency that completely disregards the rule of law. The hypocrisy is staggering. The department publicly denies the sweeping cuts.

Spokeswoman Lauren Bis recently claimed the agency merely streamlined the process to cut redundancy.

Schwank dismantled this deception directly.

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

Schwank did not mince words regarding these official statements while testifying.

“This is a lie. ICE made the program shorter, and they removed so many essential parts that what remains is a dangerous husk. ICE is lying to Congress and the American people about the steps it is taking to ensure that 12,000 officers can faithfully uphold the Constitution and perform their jobs.”

The right-wing machine relies on this dishonesty to obscure a much darker strategy. The administration does not want highly trained officers who respect civil rights because such professionals would question unlawful orders.

They want blindly loyal shock troops who will execute mass deportations without hesitation.

“Law enforcement is a deadly serious business. It is not a place for shortcuts,” Schwank reminded the panel. The government is creating a climate of terror to appease its extremist base.

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A Looming Disaster for Public Safety

Federal officers have already shot and killed at least three American citizens over the last year, including two fatalities in Minneapolis just last month.

These tragic deaths are the direct consequence of putting unvetted, inexperienced recruits into volatile situations.

“Deficient training can and will get people killed,” Schwank bluntly warned the congressional panel. The blood of future victims will be on the hands of the officials who authorized these negligent curriculum changes.

Democrats must hold the line and refuse to fund the Department of Homeland Security until strict oversight and comprehensive training standards are fully restored.

Allowing these extreme policies to stand would represent a complete surrender of our civil liberties.

“It can and will lead to unlawful arrests, violations of constitutional rights and fundamental loss of public trust in law enforcement,” Schwank concluded.

“I am duty bound to tell you the ICE Basic Immigration Enforcement Training Program is now deficient, defective, and broken,” he repeated.

The progressive movement cannot allow this unconstitutional deportation machine to operate in the shadows.

Citizens must demand immediate accountability before another untrained agent pulls a trigger on an innocent resident. The MAGA administration has trapped itself in a dangerous lie, and unrelenting public pressure is the only way to tear it down completely.

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Sources:

• The Washington Post, “Ex-ICE instructor testifies that agency slashed officer training, lied to Congress,” February 23, 2026.

• The New York Times, “ICE Whistle-Blower Calls Training for New Agents ‘Deficient’ and ‘Broken’,” February 23, 2026.

• CBS News, “ICE whistleblower warns new recruits are receiving ‘defective’ training,” February 23, 2026.

• Associated Press, “ICE officer training is ‘deficient’ and ‘broken,’ former agency lawyer tells congressional forum,” February 23, 2026.