ICE Training Gets Shorter and Weaker

ICE is rushing thousands of officers into the field—with half the training they once had.

People clash with Border Patrol agents after a traffic collision with one of their vehicles in Bell as immigration raids take place across the Greater L.A. region. (Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)

Over the course of the past 10 months of the Trump Administration, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) training has silently been cut down to almost nothing. What started as an 18 week program for deportations officers and a 27 week program for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents is now just…56 days.

That’s a dramatic shift.

Under the new program, recruits now train six days a week for eight weeks, roughly 56 days in total, before heading into the field. That’s a massive change from the previous model, which included five additional weeks of Spanish language instruction and more extensive classroom and field preparation.

Those language classes? Gone. ICE says it’s “modernizing” by replacing them with translation and interpretation services, claiming this is more “efficient.” But that’s bureaucratic spin. What it really means is that thousands of new officers will enter immigrant communities without even basic language skills—relying instead on technology to bridge cultural and communication gaps during arrests and deportations.

Officials insist no subject matter has been cut, only “redundancies.” But when training is compressed to meet a quota of 10,000 new hires, there’s no way recruits can absorb the same level of nuance, judgment, or community sensitivity that the job demands. ICE says it can “be picky” with 121,000 applications, yet it’s simultaneously lowering the bar by cutting training time, removing degree requirements, and eliminating the age cap.

It’s efficiency at the expense of competence — and when that competence involves armed officers making life-altering decisions, “streamlined” starts to seem a lot like “dangerous.”

Just look at some of these examples of how ICE has been operating in the field:

HARRISONBURG, VIRGINIA — ICE assaults a mother driving daughter to school for not having social security number memorized. “Agent became flustered when she couldn’t repeat the number... then just lunged at her,” said daughter. She showed agents work permit, social security card, drivers license, and car registration—they arrested her anyway. “I want this video out there because I want my mother home,” explained her 16-year-old daughter. Jaykie Funez-Andrade is currently being detained at the Rockingham County Jail with no pending criminal charges—as a “courtesy” to ICE.

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AURORA, CHICAGO — ICE agents surrounded the car of a U.S. citizen in a parking lot… firing into her windshield as she screamed that her children were inside. Agents then dragged her from the car without presenting a warrant or probable cause. Excessive force. No warrant. No justification.

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CICERO, ILLINOIS — ICE agents shatter both truck windows of a man sitting in the parking lot yesterday at Menards, then abduct him into an unmarked vehicle. Menards then allegedly told their workers to delete all videos of what they’d just witnessed or they would be fired.

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In all three videos, unnecessary, life-threatening force was used. It’s no secret that ICE has been operating with disregard for families and basic morality and now we know why. Officers are being thrown into the job with half the preparation and tools they once had.

In its rush to meet hiring and arrest quotas, DHS has tossed aside the historical standards of law enforcement training.

The truth is simple: no one can learn how to handle lethal weapons and de-escalate civilian encounters in just eight weeks.

Because of that, this administration has blood on its hands.