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ICE Chief Lied to Congress About Training, Whistleblowers Say
New Republic • 3 weeks ago

ICE Chief Lied to Congress About Training, Whistleblowers Say

A whistleblower report revealed Monday that ICE has been cutting corners on essential training for federal agents—despite what ICE chief Todd Lyons told Congress earlier this month.  In a lengthy memo produced by Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Permanent Investigations, whistleblower documents indicated that new recruits were receiving significantly less training amid a surge in hiring, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.  The schedules included in the whistleblower documents “indicate that current ICE recruits receive nearly 250 fewer hours of training than previous cohorts of recruits,” the memo stated.Earlier this month, Lyons claimed that while ICE had reduced the number of training days from 75 to 42, the organization had adjusted the schedule in order to preserve the amount of training. “Five days a week was five eight-hour days. We’ve gone to six 12-hour days,” he said.Whistleblower documents included in the memo indicated that ICE had also made sweeping changes to its training syllabus and testing requirements for cadets. A syllabus from this month compared to one from before the agency’s hiring surge indicated that ICE has cut entire modules, including force simulation training, government structure, criminal versus removal proceedings, and use of force. The standards for testing have also been significantly reduced. ICE recruits previously needed to pass 25 practical exams in order to graduate, and now they only need to pass nine. Among the more than a dozen exams that have been eliminated were tests on “Criminal Encounters,” “Judgment pistol shooting,” and “Determine removability.”“All of these are now instead evaluated, if at all, mainly by open-book, multiple-choice written exams and without any graded practical examinations,” the memo stated.These changes have come as Americans have witnessed ICE agents across the country practice excessive force, warrantless searches or arrests, racial profiling, and wrongful detentions. A new report Monday revealed that an ICE agent in Minnesota had accidentally discharged his weapon in a hotel room—nearly killing the person in the room next door. The memo was released ahead of another congressional hearing about ICE’s apparent abuses. Speaking at the hearing Monday was Ryan Schwank, an attorney who served as an instructor for new ICE recruits in Georgia. He claimed that ICE had cut firearms training, as well as legal classes on the constitutional limits of ICE’s authority and protesters’ rights.Schwank previously tipped off Senator Richard Blumenthal’s office about ICE giving itself permission to forgo a judicial warrant in order to enter people’s homes. It was unclear whether he was the whistleblower behind the documents included in the newest report.

Democrats Set to Pick Up House Seat With New Maps in Red State
New Republic • 3 weeks ago

Democrats Set to Pick Up House Seat With New Maps in Red State

Utah, which has four seats in the House of Representatives, all held by Republicans, may soon add a Democratic congressional seat thanks to court-ordered redistricting.A three-judge federal panel on Monday refused to block a new congressional map for the state that puts the mostly Democratic Salt Lake County, the home of state capital Salt Lake City, into one district, paving the way for the map to take effect in time for the 2026 midterms. It’s likely that Democrats would pick up the new seat.The ruling comes after years of gerrymandering battles in Utah, and disrupts President Trump’s calls for Republican-led states to redistrict ahead of 2026. Utah Republicans’ proposed map would have ensured, as in previous elections, that the state’s entire congressional delegation would have remained Republican. In November, however, it was struck down by a state court, with Utah District Court Judge Dianna Gibson ruling that Republicans had divided Salt Lake County into four districts to help themselves.Now, Democrats have a good chance to win a congressional seat in Utah thanks to a 2018 ballot initiative that created an independent redistricting commission and enshrined anti-gerrymandering legislation. Utah’s Republicans have undermined that initiative ever since, and their latest attempt prompted a lawsuit from activists including the League of Women Voters of Utah and Mormon Women for Ethical Government.Technically, Republicans can still appeal Monday’s decision, but the state’s Republican Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson, who is in charge of the state’s elections, previously said that the final 2026 congressional map had to be ready by Monday.Trump won’t be happy with the news, considering his efforts to avert a Democratic landslide in November. He pushed for Indiana to redraw new congressional maps eliminating the state’s two Democratic seats last year, only to have that effort rejected by the state’s Republicans. What else is Trump going to try in order to rig the midterms in his favor?

IHIP News: Trump Admin CAUGHT Lying About IRAN As They Gear Up to TAKE HIM DOWN!
14:22
I've Had It Podcast • 3 weeks ago

IHIP News: Trump Admin CAUGHT Lying About IRAN As They Gear Up to TAKE HIM DOWN!

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