What is the training process for new ICE agents?
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Executive summary
New ICE law‑enforcement hires move through a multi-stage process that begins with rigorous pre‑employment screening (medical, drug test, physical fitness and background checks) and continues with a federally run academy curriculum at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) followed by field training and ongoing specialty instruction . The precise duration and content depend on the career track—Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) deportation officers, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents and other ICE roles follow distinct academy paths and post‑academy pipelines, and some elements of curricula and recent changes are contested in public reporting .
1. Pre‑hire screening and basic qualifications: the gauntlet before the academy
Before trainees ever arrive at an academy, applicants face background investigations, drug testing, medical exams, a physical fitness assessment and, for many positions, polygraph testing; veterans and prior federal employees sometimes receive hiring preference, and failure at any of these stages can remove a candidate from the process .
2. The academy phase: where recruits learn law, tactics and firearms
New ICE officers are routed through basic training conducted at FLETC facilities—Glynco (Brunswick), Georgia or other FLETC sites—where curricula combine classroom instruction on immigration law and constitutional limits such as the Fourth Amendment with firearms qualification, emergency driving, tactical scenarios and de‑escalation techniques; reporting describes programs ranging from roughly 22 weeks for many ICE basic courses to longer inter‑agency sequences for HSI agents that include CITP and specialized HSI instruction .
3. Variation by career track: ERO deportation officers vs. HSI special agents
ERO deportation officers typically attend the ERO Basic Immigration Law Enforcement Training Program and then move to field training, while HSI special agents complete inter‑agency Criminal Investigator Training Program (CITP) courses followed by HSI Special Agent training—sources list 22‑week, 27‑week and combined 12+15 week variants depending on reporting and role, underscoring that “ICE training” is not a single, uniform block but multiple distinct pipelines .
4. Field training, specialization and continuing education
Graduation from an academy is not the end: new agents routinely enter supervised field training with experienced officers, receive additional specialty schooling (forensics, technical surveillance, Spanish or other language training in some years), and can later volunteer or be selected for tactical units like HSI SRT with extra physical and firearms standards; ICE also requires career‑continuous training and periodic legal refreshers .
5. Recent operational changes, streamlining and public scrutiny
In 2025 reporting officials said ICE was accelerating hiring and looking for ways to shorten training and shift some learning to field offices—including cuts to Spanish language modules in some accounts—and has issued equipment changes (gas masks, helmets) after violent operations; those moves have prompted debate about whether speedier pipelines risk eroding instruction or oversight, and critics point to past surges in hiring tied to misconduct as evidence to watch for .
6. Transparency gaps and contested facts
Public sources provide consistent themes—pre‑hire screening, FLETC academy, role‑specific pipelines and ongoing training—but disagree on exact lengths and recent reforms (reports show 22 weeks, 27 weeks, and varied segmented programs), and ICE keeps some curriculum details confidential; therefore precise week counts, what was cut or moved to field training in 2025–2026, and full syllabi are not fully reconcilable from the available reporting .
7. Bottom line: a layered, role‑dependent process under pressure
The training process for new ICE agents is layered—rigorous vetting, a federally run academy phase focused on law, tactics and firearms, followed by supervised field training and specialty courses—with measurable role differences between ERO and HSI tracks and recent administrative pressure to scale up rapidly that has drawn both agency defense and outside skepticism about the long‑term effects on preparedness and accountability .