Blumenthal & Robert Garcia Receive Testimony About ICE Abuses from Whistleblower, U.S. Citizen Whose Rights were Violated, & Former Top Lawyer at DHS

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ranking Member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), and U.S. Representative Robert Garcia (D-CA), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, held a bicameral public forum on constitutional violations and abuses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The forum, entitled, “Our Values at Stake (Part III): Terrorizing communities without warrants and no restraint,” featured testimony from Ryan Schwank, a whistleblower who spoke publicly for the first time about his experience as an Instructor for the incoming “surge” of new ICE recruits at the ICE Academy at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (“FLETC”) in Glynco, Georgia. The forum also featured testimony from Teyana Gibson Brown, a U.S. citizen and resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota whose home was forcibly entered by ICE agents without a judicial warrant, and Stevan Bunnell, General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from 2013 to 2017. Mr. Schwank’s written testimony is availablehere, Ms. Gibson Brown’s written testimony is availablehere, and Mr. Bunnell’s written testimony is availablehere.

The event is the third public forum Blumenthal and Garcia have hosted as part of their ongoing inquiry into the lawless and abusive tactics used by federal immigration agents.
Prior to the forum, Blumental released amemorandum and previously undisclosed documentsrevealing new details about drastic cuts the Trump Administration is making to the training and testing of new ICE Enforcement Removal Operations (ERO) officers.