The number of ICE agents’ training days was reduced to 47 days months before an ICE agent killed an unarmed mother in Minnesota.
The Trump administration shortened federal law enforcement training to only 47 days—nearly half the previous duration—during a push to double the number of deportation officers. Three officials confirmed to The Atlantic that the number of days was chosen because Trump is the 47th president.
The shortened training period became the subject of discussion following the Wednesday killing of U.S. citizen Renee Nicole Good, 37, by a federal agent in Minneapolis. Protests against ICE spread nationwide as critics of the agency questioned what kind of training officers receive that could result in a civilian’s death.
The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to the Daily Beast’s request to comment. In a statement to People on Thursday, DHS said the report was false.
“False. Training to become an Enforcement and Removal Operations officer is 8 weeks long,” a DHS official told the publication.
Eight weeks is a reduction from the required five months of federal law enforcement training that deportation officers previously received.
The DHS official told People that training has been “streamlined” to “cut redundancy and incorporate technology advancements,” but that “no subject matter has been cut.”
During his second administration, Trump, 79, has deployed ICE as part of his push for an immigration crackdown, mostly targeting Democrat-run cities.
Statements by Trump and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, 54, declared that the focus would be on the “worst of the worst” criminals. Reports show that roughly a third of those arrested nationwide had no criminal convictions.
Good was dropping off her six-year-old son at school, according to her ex-husband. Her death was recorded on video by bystanders. Footage showed Good trying to drive away as an ICE agent tried to open her door while another stood in front of her car and fired into the vehicle three times when it moved.
“They love this cowboy s--t,” one ICE official told The Atlantic about the showy immigration operations taking place under Trump’s second term.
Under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which the president signed into law in July, the agency has received over $75 billion from Congress for enforcement and detention, with $30 billion allocated for new staff.
On Jan. 3, the DHS announced that “the agency blew past its original hiring target” and had a 120 percent “historic” increase in officers and agents, following a hiring campaign plan crafted by Noem that targeted Fox News viewers, UFC fans, and gun proponents.
Caleb Vitello, the assistant director of ICE in charge of training in Brunswick, Georgia, told the AP in August that ICE had cut five weeks of Spanish-language training.
“Nobody wants to be the one to make a bad shot, and nobody wants to be the one that doesn’t make it home,” Dean Wilson, who’s in charge of firearms training at the Brunswick facility, told the AP, emphasizing that officers are trained to make “the proper decision.”
Following the death of Good, Trump wrote on Truth Social that she “violently, willfully, and viciously ran over the ICE officer,” claiming that he was “recovering in the hospital,” despite video showing the officer slowly walking toward the crashed vehicle after the shooting.
The president later dodged questions from The New York Times reporters about his statements and made them watch the video, after which he declared that it was “horrible to watch.”
Secretary Noem has maintained that the ICE officer who shot Good “followed his training.”
