ICE whistleblower warns fast-tracked hiring created grave national security risks

An anonymous Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in charge of evaluating new recruits has warned that the Trump administration’s fast-tracked hiring process exposed the U.S. to “grave national security risks.”

The whistleblower complaint, obtained by The New York Times, follows other urgent warnings from current and former officials who feared that the Trump administration’s hiring surge put thousands of officers on the streets without proper guidance or training.

The complaint, filed by a 17-year ICE veteran, alleges the agency was relying on an “unprecedented lowering of standards” to onboard “improperly vetted” candidates who were receiving job offers before they passed any background checks, according to The Times.

The official, who directly oversaw more than 100 employees and evaluated thousands of ICE applicants, was so alarmed by the process that he filed a complaint with the Office of Inspector General in the Department of Homeland Security, which the newspaper obtained through a public records request.

“We chose as an agency to be more convenient rather than thorough,” the official told the newspaper. “By doing so, there was a potential to put lives at risk and to jeopardize national security.”

The report follows a similar whistleblower complaint from former ICE lawyer Ryan Schwank, who served as an assistant chief counsel and later as a legal instructor at the ICE Academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. He resigned earlier this year.

In his complaint and testimony to Congress, Schwank alleged ICE relied on a “deficient, defective and broken” set of training courses and gave new recruits a “blatantly unlawful order” to forcibly enter homes without a warrant.

The academy is “teaching cadets to violate the Constitution, and they were attempting to cloak it in secrecy,” he said.

Both reports were filed last summer in the thick of ICE’s efforts to rapidly hire and train new recruits after Congress approved President Donald Trump’s massive spending package to boost immigration arrests in a campaign to forcibly remove tens of thousands of people from the country.

ICE’s training practices came under intense scrutiny in the wake of several lethal incidents involving federal agents, including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January, as well as the killings of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero and Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, one week apart in July.

Two ex-wives of ICE agent David Brouillette, who fatally shot Guerrero in Maine, have accused him in interviews and court filings of having a violent past, including a history of abuse towards them and his daughters.

Brouillette, a military veteran and former Veterans Affairs police officer, was among the surge of new recruits hired by ICE last year. His ex-wives have accused ICE of failing to interview them about his behavior before he was put on the streets.

“If you were to ask me whether I believe David Brouillette is capable of this level of extreme violence, my answer is unequivocally yes,” his ex-wife Lucinda Brouillette said in a message to reporters earlier this year.

Last year, ICE brought on roughly 12,000 fresh hires by dropping its standards — including lowering a minimum age from 21 to 18 and no longer requiring a college degree, among others — in addition to the accelerated hiring process. Those efforts more than doubled its workforce, drawn in by generous signing bonuses and other financial incentives.

The whistleblower report obtained by The Times alleges dangerous shortcuts in the hiring process, including unconfirmed fingerprints and incomplete background checks before officials made any job offers, leaving out any time for red flags to emerge — including whether applicants appeared on law enforcement databases for criminal violations.

That process, which typically takes seven to 10 days, was upended last summer. Officials were told to make hiring decisions without a full security form, fingerprints or polygraph testing, according to the whistleblower report.

That incomplete vetting process meant recruits were heading into training without having their criminal histories or other basic information verified.

“The two ICE whistleblowers we represent have played a vital role in exposing some of the agency’s worst policies, and their public revelations are having a significant impact,” WhistleblowerAid.org senior vice president and special counsel David Kilgerman said in a statement Thursday.

“We welcome news of another whistleblower sounding the alarm and speaking out about the need for accountability and proper vetting,” he added. “Brave truthtellers in government are working hard to right the ship, and we owe them a debt of gratitude.”

Schwank added that “trained professional law enforcement officers deserve to know that the colleagues serving beside them are of the highest caliber.”

“The fact that another ICE whistleblower has come forward with alarming concerns about vetting that mirror my own is encouraging and affirming,” he said in a statement. “Other ICE instructors and I worried about a loose cannon or a criminal being recruited and the tragic effects that could have. The American public — and ICE officers themselves — will be safer when we hold incoming recruits to the standards we should expect from federal agents. ICE will not regain the public’s trust by abandoning its duty to ensure the character and fitness of its officers and leadership.”

ICE’s training program was also cut down from roughly 10 weeks to six, meaning recruits could be put on the streets before their background checks were complete.

The agency has since scrapped the fast-track training process. Beginning July 1, ICE recruits have returned to 72 days of training, up from 42 days.

Officers who went through the fast-tracked process are also required to participate in a “follow-on” training program called the Advanced Field Officer Training Program, though it’s unclear how long that program will take.

A Homeland Security spokesperson told The Independent that the agency “does not comment on matters regarding personnel who are no longer with the agency.”

“The ICE Office of Professional Responsibility diligently applies the proper personnel vetting regulations, including guidelines for national security, and evaluates all available information for every applicant based on these factors,” a spokesperson told The Independent.

“Applicants may receive a Tentative Selection Letter following their initial application and interview. Additionally, individuals may receive an offer of temporary status to begin training pending a full background investigation,” the person said.

“As we have said all along, ICE training does not end when recruits graduate from the academy,” the person added.

According to Homeland Security, new hires receive “rigorous on-the-job training and mentorship” and apply lessons 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.”