The Trump administration is pausing training at the federal government’s primary law enforcement academies for anyone not related to immigration enforcement, saying the change is necessary to meet the president’s “immediate priorities.”
The administration is in the midst of surging 10,000 employees to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after securing funding for the hires in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, creating unprecedented demand at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers. Training needs could create bottlenecks as ICE seeks to rapidly onboard the new officers and agents, current and former officials have warned, and the administration is now taking drastic measures to avoid those pitfalls.
“To support the onboarding of 10,000 US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations personnel and 1,000 ICE Homeland Security Investigations personnel by Dec. 31st, 2025, we must focus our resources on surge-related training,” acting FLETC Director Paul Baker and his deputy, Ariana Roddini, said in a message to staff Wednesday. “As a result, training programs for agencies not directly involved in these efforts, originally scheduled between Sept. 9 and Dec. 31, 2025 will be rescheduled to later dates in Fiscal Year 2026.”
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.
“We recognize the impact this decision may have on our partner agencies and the additional demands it places on our staff,” Baker and Roddini said.
The DHS component has stood up a Surge Training Operations Center to help manage the influx from ICE and “coordinate planning and execution.” That group is assembling daily to address challenges that arise and meet the administration’s priorities, while still supporting its partner agencies “as much as possible.”
Baker and Roddini added they are examining whether other FLETC sites could accommodate critical training programs and are working with other agencies to find temporary solutions to meet their training needs. In addition to ICE’s 10,000 ERO hires, 1,000 HSI hires and normal federal law enforcement onboarding—which Trump has exempted from his governmentwide hiring freeze—the president’s signature immigration enforcement and tax bill funded 8,500 new employees for Customs and Border Protection and provided $3 billion for Bureau of Prisons hiring.
FLETC itself received $750 million to support those hiring efforts and current and former officials highlighted the need to quickly expand capacity at the training center to accommodate the surges. The current limitation on classrooms, instructors, firearms ranges and other assets could limit FLETC’s throughout, they said.
Jason Owens, a longtime Border Patrol official who served as chief of the agency under President Biden and as its chief operating officer through March, recently told Government Executive that expanding capacity at FLETC could create its own speed bumps because construction “doesn’t happen overnight,” requires a buildup of procurement capacity and the typically-not-timely awarding of contracts.
One FLETC employee said the agency did not “appear to be prioritizing the building of long term capabilities.” Instead, the employee said, “they look focused on short term, temporary fixes to accommodate the mission.”
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment. For its part, FLETC stressed that it is committed to helping its own employees work through the changes.
“We understand the challenges this surge may present and are committed to providing the support and resources you need to carry out your responsibilities effectively,” Baker and Roddini said.
ICE has created a variety of incentives to identify new applicants, including recruitment bonuses of up to $50,000 and removing age caps for staff to serve. It has also slashed training time from six months to 48 days, The Atlantic reported this week.
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