On an unknown date, the Trump administration paused all training at the federal government’s primary law enforcement academies that do not relate to immigration enforcement, citing Trump’s “immediate priorities.”
After Trump signed the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the administration was able to hire 10,000 new employees for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and 1,000 ICE Homeland Security Investigations. Current and former officials warned of a training bottleneck due to the scale of new recruits. The administration’s decision to prioritize the government’s training facilities for ICE has come at the expense of all other law enforcement.
More than 75 federal law enforcement agencies train at FLETC, which maintains its primary campus in Glynco, Georgia. Those agencies range from other Homeland Security Department components like Border Patrol and the Transportation Security Administration to the National Park Service, military police and inspectors general offices across government.
Government Executive
The crowding out of inspectors general personnel is a notable boon for Trump, as his administration has went to war with them. Senator Chuck Grassley, who has prided himself as an ally of inspectors general, has not issued a comment on this development.
The DHS has established a Surge Training Operations Center to facilitate the influx of new ICE recruits, and also contributes to “coordinate planning and execution.” It has vaguely pledged to support partner agencies. However, the DHS has clearly put ICE at the center of its law enforcement activities. It has stated that training schedules may be altered to accommodate for ICE, with training programs for other agencies having to wait until fiscal 2026.
While Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) received $750 million to process the new employees, it still suffers from classroom, instructor, firearm range, and other shortages. A current FLETC employee noted that the administration did not “appear to be prioritizing the building of long term capabilities.”
This lack of concern for “long term capabilities” makes it yet more clear that the Trump administration cares more for the aesthetic of law enforcement than genuine solutions for immigration-related crime.
