Trained to Disregard

ICE whistleblower Ryan Schwank, a former agency instructor and staff attorney, testified that field agents were trained to disregard constitutional rights as a matter of operational policy. Schwank’s account moves the question of unlawful arrests, denied counsel access, and warrantless entries from the category of individual misconduct into the category of institutional design.

The institutional framing matters because the remedies are different. Individual misconduct can be addressed by discipline; institutional design requires changing the training, the policies, and the people who set them.