Secret ICE Program Trains Bankers, Journalists, Educators to Shoot Migrants
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has a secret program to train civilians in firearms, surveillance techniques and immigration detention. The program, which is run by volunteers, operates in New York City and more than a dozen other cities across the country, the website reports. Documented.
The program, known as Citizens Academies, involves training for potential immigration raids. It is run by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the division of ICE responsible for investigations and international affairs.
The report on the Citizens' Academies was compiled from thousands of internal documents obtained from ICE through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) subpoena. The report, compiled by a group of civil rights organizations and released on October 1, found that the program was first launched in Puerto Rico in 2014 and expanded nationally in 2019-.
An ICE spokesperson confirmed to Documented that HSI Citizens' Academies are still in operation across the country. Similar initiatives are underway by other law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
The documents, obtained by the Immigrant Defense Project and Organized Communities Against Deportation with legal assistance from Beyond Legal Aid, Latino Justice, and the Center for Constitutional Rights, include detailed instructions on how and when to strike with batons and other weapons.
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A cruel and racist program
“This is a brutal and racist program. The training involved civilians playing ICE officers shooting agents playing immigrants,” said Ian Head, manager of the Open Records Project at the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a civil rights legal organization. The documents include instructions on how to shoot. Members of the program practice shooting military-style rifles. The Atlanta training included shooting humanoid dummies with M4 assault rifles, widely used by the military. One slide in the presentation suggests yelling “drop your gun” to justify shooting to kill.
Founded in 2014 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Citizens’ Academies were rolled out to ICE field offices during the Trump administration. The program was suspended in 2020 when ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) announced special courses in Chicago.
It’s unclear when the program was revived, however. Documents show dozens of academies, each training no more than 20 volunteers, were set up mostly between 2017 and 2020. Head estimates that about 200 civilians were likely trained in the tactics before that time.
“The civic academies were a propaganda effort to romanticize ICE’s brutal tactics,” said Jenia Blazer, hotline director at the Immigrant Defense Project. “They were recruiting people who could incite vigilante violence in communities.”
Amid Republican campaign promises of mass deportations, civil rights groups are calling for the permanent closure of the Citizens' Academies.
It all started in New York
The academies were launched by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Following pilot trainings in Puerto Rico, the first Citizens’ Academy training opened in New York City in 2017 with 19 volunteers from businesses, nonprofits, academia, and community groups, according to an ICE press release. Documents indicate that two or three more academy trainings have likely been held in the city.
The cadets were not tough men with military backgrounds. Among the first participants was David B. Chenkin, a partner at Zeichner Ellman & Krause, a law firm that handles government investigations, financial crime compliance, and cybersecurity, among other legal matters, with offices in the U.S. and Israel.
Another volunteer, Karen Hennigan, director and deputy general counsel of Citigroup, the third-largest financial institution in the United States, said the program "helped us all become better civic partners for HSI."
In addition to law enforcement, banking professionals were well represented at the Citizens’ Academies. Employees from Bank of America, Standard Chartered Bank of New Jersey, US Bank, and others volunteered for the program. All were selected by their local HSI chapter after being nominated by one of their employees, alumni, and community leaders.
The program's 2022 communications plan listed the types of people ICE sought to engage: "media, academic leaders, business/community leaders, prosecutors, local and state law enforcement, members of non-governmental organizations."
One goal, Blazer said, was to shape media coverage of ICE's activities. Some aspects of the organization's work have been highly controversial, especially during the Trump administration.
While the program was active, HSI agents launched thousands of investigations into workplaces across the United States, sometimes arresting hundreds of workers in a single day. The agency expanded its vast surveillance apparatus by amassing “massive internal surveillance databases” used beyond its authority and stated mission, according to the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Despite the controversial activities of HSI, the functioning of the academies has even been covered in the press.
“Citizens practiced drug busts, immigration surveillance and violent arrests, in which they simulated shoot-to-kill maneuvers using paintball-style ammunition,” according to a 2018 LA Times article about the academy.
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Scandal in Chicago
In 2020, some Chicago residents received a letter from ICE inviting them to apply for training that included “defensive tactics, firearms familiarization, and targeted arrests.” The training was scheduled to begin on September 15, Mexico’s Independence Day.
Local civil rights groups have condemned the Chicago Civic Academy for sowing “xenophobia and violence” in the city, prompting street protests and prompting Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s office to denounce what she called ICE’s “despicable plan.”
A week before Sept. 15, ERO announced that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chicago academy's classes had been postponed to 2021. The program was suspended nationwide.
An ICE spokesperson said ERO did not try to set up an academy after the Chicago outrage. However, HSI still operates the academies. The spokesperson explained that the training in no way empowers civilians to enforce any laws or replace law enforcement.
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