The Trump administration has quietly ended the fast‑track training program that produced hundreds of newly hired Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers over the past year and will instead certify veteran agents to provide expanded on‑the‑job training in field offices, administration officials said.
Two administration officials and a person close to the agency, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is drafting a new curriculum to bolster training for Enforcement and Removal Operations officers. The plan — still being finalised and subject to change — calls for experienced, certified officers to be stationed at field offices as training point persons whose primary job will be mentoring recruits and ensuring consistent standards nationwide.
The move responds to months of bipartisan criticism and whistleblower accounts that recruits hired under the expedited program received dramatically less classroom instruction than previous classes. Internal documents released by Democrats showed a July 2025 syllabus with about 584 hours over 72 days compared with a February 2026 syllabus of roughly 336 hours spread over about 42 days. Democrats and former ICE instructors have described the truncated regimen as a steep cut, while DHS has repeatedly denied it removed training requirements.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and border czar Tom Homan raised the training issue with lawmakers during negotiations over new agency funding, administration officials said. Lyons and Homan pledged to provide officers hired in recent months with “the extra 30 days of training they didn’t get before they started on the job,” one official said. Lawmakers had sought a statutory requirement for additional training; the administration preferred an informal commitment and declined to enshrine the change in the final DHS funding bill.
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DHS spokespeople referred media inquiries to ICE and reiterated that academy instruction is complemented by rigorous, tracked on‑the‑job training and mentorship once recruits leave the classroom. “New hires take what they learn at [Federal Law Enforcement Training Center] and apply it to real‑life scenarios while on duty,” a DHS statement said, adding that training is monitored online and field offices rely on senior officials to mentor and coach agents.
The personnel and curriculum changes come amid a broader shift in the administration’s posture on immigration enforcement following sustained political pushback and a protracted 76‑day DHS funding standoff that spotlighted training and operational policies. That impasse was recently resolved, but lawmakers and the White House failed to reach agreement on several policy reforms, including whether federal immigration officers should need judicial warrants for certain entries onto private property.
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Advocates and some Democrats say the administration’s pledge to broaden and standardise field‑based training could help address safety and constitutional concerns raised by whistleblowers and former instructors — who testified that cuts had eliminated classes on the Constitution, lawful arrests, use of force and detention procedures. Officials familiar with the plan say placing certified trainers in each field office is intended to create uniform standards and avoid the variability critics have flagged. The draft curriculum is expected to flesh out those guarantees in the coming weeks.
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