How ICE whistleblower Ryan Schwank has ties to Bowling Green
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (CBS News) – A recent whistleblower regarding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement training reportedly has ties to the Bowling Green area.
According to CBS News, Democratic lawmakers held a public forum at the Capitol on Monday on alleged constitutional violations and abuses by ICE.
Ryan Schwank, an ICE whistleblower and former attorney for ICE, made several statements Monday regarding ICE training. However, before his time connected to ICE, Schwank had ties to the local area in Bowling Green.
On Tuesday, an associate with Bowling Green Independent Schools confirmed Schwank is a year 2000 graduate of Bowling Green High School and that he participated in the school’s academic team and speech club and as a student worker.
During Monday’s forum, Schwank stated, “My name is Ryan Schwank. I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution. When I joined ICE on August 1, 2021 as an assistant chief counsel. I followed that oath for 4.5 years, working side by side with ICE officers. And I followed it when I resigned on February 13, 2026, a little over a week ago, so that I could speak to you today. I am here because I am duty bound. To report the legally required training program at the ICE academy is deficient, defective and broken.”
Schwank then went on to say ICE is teaching cadets to “violate the Constitution.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D) Connecticut later stated, “I’m gonna hold up two posters. One of them you’ve just seen is what happened at your home. The other is of a memo. Mr. Schwank I think you’ll recognize this memo. It is a memo written by acting director Lyons. We’ve seen it before at this hearing. It says, in effect, ICE officers should violate the Fourth Amendment. Were you taught or told that you should train ICE agents in accordance with this memo?”
Schwank stated that he had been told to “instruct cadets to follow the instructions” in the memo and that he was told not to discuss that memo.
Blumenthal went on to say the memo was used as “the basis for training ICE agents generally, hundreds, thousands of them during this fiscal year.”
Schwank went on to say that classes aimed at teaching cadets how to “do their job safely and lawfully were removed from testing.”
Blumenthal then stated, “But what those ICE officers did to Ms. Gibson Brown. What they did to countless people in Minneapolis, what they are continuing to do across the country was not the result of split level decisions. It was the result of a conscious, purposeful, deliberate policy, carefully taught and trained. And in fact, the reduction in training, for example, on pistol use, on use of force, on other vital topics. Was regrettable, but the effects were truly shocking. Let me ask you, uh, because just in the time that we’ve released these documents, DHS has come forth with a statement. I’m gonna quote it. ‘Under these new improvements, candidates still learn the same elements and meet the same high standards ICE has always required. No subject matter has been cut.’ Is that statement accurate, Mr. Schwank?”
Schwank anwered by stating the statement “is not accurate” and stated it was a lie.
WNKY News 40 additionally reached out to Western Kentucky University, and while an associate with WKU confirmed an individual by the same name as Schwank graduated from there with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2009, they stated they were not able to confirm if it was the same individual.
News 40 will continue to provide additional coverage as it is released.
