Immigration and Customs Training Complex Opens in Georgia

A new training complex for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) special agents and officers recently opened (see announcement) in Georgia, co-located with the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC). The new ICE Academy complex includes four computer labs, nine classrooms, two electronics labs, and two breakout rooms.

The ICE-funded project provides a central classroom location for all ICE Academy basic and specialized training programs. The classroom complex will house ICE’s two basic training programs: ICE Enforcement and Removal Basic Law Enforcement Training and ICE Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Training. Specialized ICE programs designated for the building include technical enforcement, Spanish language, and instructor development courses.

In fiscal year 2010, the ICE Academy trained nearly 4,000 ICE employees, enrolled in more than 30 training programs. FLETC serves as an interagency law enforcement training organization for 90 federal agencies. In addition, the organization provides training to state, local, campus, tribal, and international law enforcement agencies. During FY 2010, over 65,000 students trained at the FLETC centers. Since its inception in 1970, nearly 940,000 law enforcement officers and agents have been trained at the largest law enforcement training organization in the country.

Headquartered on a 1,600-acre campus at Glynco, FLETC also operates facilities in Artesia, NM; Charleston, SC; and Cheltenham, MD. Additionally, FLETC has oversight responsibility on behalf of the Department of Homeland Security for the International Law Enforcement Academy (ILEA) at Gaborone, Botswana; assists in the management of the ILEA in Bangkok, Thailand; and supports training at each of these ILEAs, as well as the ILEA in Budapest, Hungary, and San Salvador, El Salvador.