ICE Program Trains Civilians on Firearms and Surveillance, Documents Show

Documented reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has run a “secretive” program — Citizens Academies — where ICE agents have trained civilian volunteers on how to operate various firearms, conduct investigations and surveillance of immigrants, and use lethal force on human beings. 

I am not sure how secretive the program is given that it is outlined in a DHS website.

According to Documented, “[t]he Citizens Academies provide role-play scenarios for civilians to conduct raids on immigrants and is active in New York and in more than a dozen cities across the country. The program is run by Homeland Security Investigations, the branch of ICE in charge of intelligence, international affairs, and surveillance.

According to . . . documents obtained from ICE via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request litigation, published on Oct. 1 by a group of civil rights organizations, the program was piloted first in Puerto Rico in 2014 and turned national in 2019.”

KJ