Immigration and Customs Enforcement slashed training times for new recruits during a hiring blitz aimed at fulfilling the Trump administration’s deportation demands, according to a new report, which backs up claims recently raised by a whistleblower.
The Washington Post obtained four previously undisclosed ICE training outlines dated between July and January which reveal, in hour-by-hour detail, how new agents were taught.
The records indicate that roughly 240 hours were cut from ICE’s basic training regimen, amounting to more than 40 percent of total instructional time.
The majority of the cuts were made in August 2025, when the Trump administration encouraged ICE, overseen by the Department of Homeland Security, to double the number of agents in the field by the beginning of this year.
Over 100 hours of training was eliminated during the first round of cuts, including about 28 hours of firearms training, dozens of hours of classroom time and nearly all of the hours dedicated to fitness training.
After further reductions in the fall, 75 percent of the training hours devoted to assessing recruits’ practical skills — including firearms proficiency — were cut. And 26 hours once used to evaluate immigration enforcement–specific skills were eliminated entirely, according to the Post.
By January 2026, more than 900 agents had completed the shortened training program — more than three times the number who graduated between August 2024 and August 2025.
ICE also bolstered training on certain subjects after initial cuts, including increasing time spent on “use of force” by five hours after reducing it by three hours.
In response to an inquiry about The Washington Post’s story, an ICE spokesperson told The Independent: “New ICE recruits receive 56 days of training and an average of 28 days of on-the-job training. No training requirements have been removed. Training increased from five days a week, eight hours a day to six days a week, twelve hours per day including personalized independent training. It’s the same hours of training officers have always received. No training or standards have been cut.”
In a statement to The Washington Post, a spokesperson noted that new agents use their training to “apply it to real-life scenarios while on duty, preserving ICE’s reputation as one of the most elite law enforcement agencies not only in the U.S., but the entire world.”
The ICE training outlines came to light one week after whistleblower Ryan Schwank, a former ICE lawyer and training instructor, testified before Congress that new hires are being given “deficient, defective and broken” instructional courses.
“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,” Schwank said Monday at a hearing organized by congressional Democrats. “That should scare everyone.”
DHS refuted Schwank’s claims.
A former DHS official made a similar allegation in January, telling MS NOW that ICE recruits receive less training than “animal control officers.”
Last summer Trump signed his signature “One Big Beautiful Bill” into law — a spending package that allocated a record $165 billion to DHS. It included funds to hire 10,000 new ICE agents to carry out Trump’s demand for the largest deportation program in U.S. history.
Last month, Democrats blocked new funding for the agency following fatalities and violence involving ICE and other immigration agents. Earlier this year, two American citizens, Renee Good and Alex Pretti — were killed by federal immigration agents in Minnesota. The White House has characterized the Democrats’ demands for reform as “very unserious.”
Recent polls indicate Americans have concerns about ICE’s tactics. While Americans are split over whether the government should deport all undocumented immigrants, they oppose ICE’s measures by a 2-to-1 margin, according to a February Ipsos survey. Fifty-eight percent also said they disapprove of how Trump is handling immigration.
DHS’ independent watchdog is conducting multiple investigations into ICE, including on its hiring program, use of expedited removal authority, use of force and detention facilities.
“We recognize the importance of these reviews to provide valuable insight to DHS leadership and Congress, as well as to the public,” the inspector general said in February. “These reviews are being conducted as expeditiously as possible.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect ICE’s response.
