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

[WASHINGTON, DC] - Today, 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 following Americans shared their personal experiences with the unconstitutional tactics ICE agents are being trained on and using in U.S. cities:

Ryan Schwank: In 2021, Mr. Schwank was hired as an Assistant Chief Counsel for the ICE Office of the Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA). In 2025, he became 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. As an ICE Academy instructor, Mr. Schwank was responsible for teaching the legal curriculum. Prior to his work at FLETC, Mr. Schwank's duties included representing ICE in proceedings before the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR). Mr. Schwank resigned from his position at ICE on February 13, 2026.

"I believe in a strong and effective immigration system that provides fair and transparent due process. I recognize the need for the United States to control its borders. I believe that a good immigration enforcement system requires dedicated and professional officers who know their legal duties and understand the limits of their authority and role. This is why I profoundly regret the need to be here today," Mr. Schwank said.

"I am duty bound to tell you the ICE Basic Immigration Enforcement Training Program is now deficient, defective, and broken."

"Law enforcement is a deadly serious business. It is not a place for hyperbole, exaggeration, or falsehoods. Deficient training can and will get people killed. It can and will lead to unlawful arrests, violations of constitutional rights, and a fundamental loss of public trust in law enforcement. ICE is lying to Congress and the American people about the steps it is taking to ensure its over 10,000 new officers faithfully uphold the Constitution and can perform their jobs."

Mr. Schwank's written testimony is available here.

Teyana Gibson Brown: Ms. Gibson Brown is a U.S. citizen and resident of Minneapolis, Minnesota. In January, ICE agents forcefully entered her home without a judicial warrant, breaking down her door and pointing guns at her family.

"The circumstances outside our home only intensified. We knew our rights though; we knew no one could barge in our homes without a warrant because the space was ours," Ms. Gibson Brown said.

"Officers from the trucks started shooting pepper spray at the protestors. Amid all of this, about ten officers approached my front yard. They looked like SWAT agents, holding each other's shoulders like a barricade. One of them grabbed a protestor that was in my front yard from the front and back of his shirt and slung him into the grass. The officers walked up to my door and started ramming the door. They hit the door three times until the door popped open. My stomach fell the moment I heard the door pop, and I realized we were no longer protected. Far away from ever experiencing something close to this, we have never even known of anything of this sort. I had no idea what would happen to my family."

Ms. Gibson Brown's written testimony is available here.

Stevan Bunnell: Mr. Bunnell served as General Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2017. He spent 17 years as a federal prosecutor, including as Chief of the Criminal Division at the US Attorney's Office in Washington, DC.

"It is a basic principle of Fourth Amendment law that searches and seizures inside a home without a warrant are presumptively unreasonable," Mr. Bunnell said. "Indeed, the Supreme Court has stated that the physical entry of the home is "the chief evil against which the working of the Fourth Amendment is directed." The law is also clear that a warrant to enter someone's home has to be issued by a "neutral and detached magistrate or judge." In other words, the police can't sign their own warrants."

Mr. Bunnell's written testimony is available here.

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1. Immigration