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For our\u00a0<\/em>November+December issue<\/em><\/a>, we\u00a0investigated\u00a0the brutal rollout of President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration police state: the surge in funding and manpower, the troubling arrests by masked agents, the increasing use of problematic tech, the incessant cruelty of the messaging, and the shadowy profiteers cashing in on the administration\u2019s anti-immigrant crackdown.\u00a0Read the whole package\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Earlier this year,<\/span> the Department of Homeland Security handed a massive aviation contract, potentially worth nearly $1 billion, to a relatively new company with no federal contracting experience, following an opaque and seemingly hurried process.<\/p>\n The deal has sparked criticism from a rival contractor in a scathing lawsuit, and records obtained by Mother Jones<\/em> reveal the extensive involvement of a senior DHS official who formerly worked with the winning company\u2019s CEO. The lawsuit alleges the contract was \u201cunlawful, rushed, and noncompetitive.\u201d As the Trump administration pours billions of dollars into DHS for its crackdown on undocumented immigrants, the contract adds to a growing<\/a> number<\/a> of deals<\/a> that have prompted questions<\/a> about the integrity of DHS contracting.<\/p>\n The three-year deal to fly migrants back to their home countries went to Salus Worldwide Solutions, a company founded by a former State Department official named William Walters. Until early September<\/a>, the DHS division overseeing the contract was run by Christopher Pratt, a former State Department colleague of Walters. The White House had nominated Pratt for a high-level position to serve as the State Department\u2019s main liaison with the Pentagon, but pulled his nomination on September 29<\/a>.<\/p>\n Internal DHS records seen by Mother Jones<\/em> show that Pratt was involved in the contract award to Salus. In April, before the contract was awarded, Pratt scheduled DHS offsite meetings at Salus\u2019s office, and he personally congratulated Walters after his company won the contract.<\/p>\n Neither Pratt nor Walters responded to questions about the contract and their relationship.<\/p>\n If the plan takes off, this program could prove extremely lucrative for Salus, a firm that appears to have only a handful of employees and was launched in 2023 by Walters, a former Army medical officer.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The contract, worth up to $915 million, is for air operations to support the administration\u2019s effort to persuade millions of undocumented immigrants to \u201cself-deport,\u201d a key plank in the Trump administration\u2019s immigration policy. The White House\u00a0call<\/a>s\u00a0the program \u201cProject Homecoming.\u201d\u00a0Under it, immigrants who use a Customs and Border Protection app to self-deport are being offered a $1,000 \u201cexit bonus\u201d and free travel. This program is at least partially funded by money that Congress earmarked to provide foreign aid to help refugees, but which the Trump administration has repurposed for \u201cself-deportations,\u201d as Reuters previously reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n It is hard to know how many people have so far accepted the offer. But if the plan takes off, this program could prove extremely lucrative for Salus, a firm that appears to have only a handful of employees and was launched in 2023 by Walters<\/a>, a former Army medical officer. A federal contracting website describes Salus as a \u201cWomen Owned Business<\/a>.\u201d The company did not respond to questions about the basis for that claim, but\u00a0on October 2<\/a>,\u00a0days after\u00a0Mother Jones<\/em>\u00a0asked about it, Salus\u2019 federal contractor registration was updated\u00a0to remove\u00a0that description<\/a>.<\/p>\n Walters previously led a State Department unit called the Bureau of Medical Services, which helped to evacuate department personnel in emergencies. Several former Bureau of Medical Services staffers have followed him to Salus Worldwide.<\/p>\n Formed during the Obama administration, this State Department outfit gained attention helping the department deal with the pandemic in 2020. Walters was lionized<\/a> in a Vanity Fair <\/em>profile for his unit\u2019s \u201cdaring and often dangerous operations to rescue Americans from peril abroad.\u201d And then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly<\/a> okayed the unit\u2019s upgrade from a directorate to a bureau in 2020. But that move was blocked in 2021 by his Biden administration successor Antony Blinken. Walters resigned from the State Department shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n During the 2024 campaign, Walters criticized Vice President Kamala Harris and bashed<\/a> the Biden administration for failing to help Afghans who had aided American forces immigrate to the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n A person familiar with the process said DHS originally planned on awarding the deal to the company without competition but eventually opened it up to bidding for two business days, which a competitor\u2019s lawsuit called \u201can impossibly short\u201d period.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n In an October 2024 Washington Times<\/em> op-ed with the headline \u201cBiden-Harris admin abandons our allies in Afghanistan<\/a>,\u201d he argued Biden had \u201cleft behind\u201d over 130,000 Afghans who supported US efforts there, while making it easy for \u201cpeople from Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti\u201d to enter the US. Walters then asked if the Biden administration was \u201cprioritizing the creation of a new voting bloc,\u201d by making it easy for \u201clikely Democratic voters\u201d to immigrate\u2014a suggestion reminiscent of aspects of the \u201cGreat Replacement\u201d conspiracy theory popular on the far right.\u00a0<\/p>\n In April, DHS said<\/a> it would not renew temporary protections for around 12,000 Afghans who were able to immigrate to the US under Biden, setting them up for potential deportation to Afghanistan, where many could face reprisals from the Taliban. Walters does not appear to have publicly commented on that decision.<\/p>\n The Salus contract has an unusual history. A person familiar with the process said the department originally planned on awarding the deal to the company without competition, but DHS eventually opened it up to bidding for two business days, which a competitor\u2019s lawsuit called \u201can impossibly short\u201d period.<\/p>\n The Salus contract award is in support of DHS\u2019s Office of Strategy, Policy, and Plans. The office is closer on the DHS organization chart to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem than to ICE itself, which normally runs deportation flights.\u00a0<\/p>\n CSI Aviation, a longtime federal contractor that missed out on the large contract, charged that DHS had \u201cforeclosed fair competition by secretly inviting only hand-picked vendors\u201d in a process that excluded CSI.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Pratt oversaw that office until September. It is now run by Robert Law, who previously held<\/a> a top immigration-focused job at the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank launched in 2021 by top officials from his first administration. In November, a few weeks after Trump\u2019s election victory, the organization gave Walters an \u201cAFPI Patriot Award\u201d at a gala event<\/a> held at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago club. AFPI did not respond to an inquiry about that award.<\/p>\n In a legal protest<\/a> filed in August in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, CSI Aviation, a longtime federal contractor that missed out on the large contract, charged that DHS had \u201cforeclosed fair competition by secretly inviting only hand-picked vendors\u201d in a process that excluded CSI.\u00a0<\/p>\n CSI already had an ICE deportation flight contract worth up to $586 million<\/a>, and one of its subcontractors provided planes that the agency used back in March to transport people to a notoriously brutal El Salvadoran prison, whom the Trump administration unpersuasively claimed<\/a> were all members of the Venezuelan-based Tren de Aragua gang, despite a court order<\/a> blocking the flights.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n But CSI maintains it was shut out of the bidding for the self-deportation deal. DHS gave a predetermined list of contractors just two days to submit proposals, the complaint alleges, justifying the tight timeline by claiming it had an \u201cunusual and compelling\u201d need to remove migrants due to an executive order<\/a> issued by President Trump. But Trump\u2019s order had been issued nearly five months earlier, CSI noted. \u201cFor five months, the Agency withheld notice from the public and kept the procurement behind closed doors\u2014contradicting its own claim of \u2018urgency,\u2019\u201d CSI alleged. \u201cDHS ensured only a select few were aware of and able to compete for the contract, and affirmatively barred others\u2014including CSI\u2014from participating.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The department\u2019s request for proposals from potential contractors showed clear signs of haste, according to CSI. It was full of typos and other errors, \u201cincluding listing the value of the procurement at $95 million instead of $915 million,\u201d the company\u2019s filing said.<\/p>\n Questions about the Salus award come amid a broader criticism<\/a> of the department\u2019s contracting process under DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n CSI also said that DHS \u201cinexplicably removed\u201d an online contracting notice in May after CSI asked about submitting a proposal, and that DHS never responded to the company.<\/p>\n CSI and an attorney representing the company did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n As the lawsuit over its contract continues, Salus appears to be gearing up. The company is currently hiring<\/a> for more than 20 positions, including aviation security jobs.<\/p>\n Questions about the Salus award come amid a broader criticism<\/a> of the department\u2019s contracting process under Noem. In June, she issued a new policy requiring that she personally approve any spending worth more than $100,000, which has created large backlogs of unapproved contracts, according to multiple<\/a> reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n Noem and her adviser Corey Lewandowski, who is working as a special government employee, have also reportedly involved themselves in DHS contracts awarded as part of the self-deportation program. In February, the department, on an expedited basis, doled out contracts to two GOP-connected firms to craft ads encouraging undocumented immigrants to self-deport, part of a $200 million<\/a> TV ad blitz featuring Noem. One of those firms is owned<\/a> by a Louisiana-based political consultant who has previously worked with Lewandowski.<\/p>\n After Noem and Lewandowski visited a Palantir facility in March, \u201cLewandowski told officials at the Department of Homeland Security to give the firm additional work,\u201d the Wall Street Journal<\/em> reported<\/a>. DHS expanded Palantir\u2019s contract to assist the administration in tracking self-deportations. (Lewandowski denied he played a role.)<\/p>\n Noem claimed<\/a> in August that \u201chundreds of thousands of people have left on their own\u201d outside of the DHS program encouraging them to leave. Government data released through Freedom of Information Act requests suggests<\/a> the number was around 4,200 in July.<\/p>\n A DHS spokesperson told Mother Jones<\/em> that \u201ctens of thousands of illegal aliens have utilized the CBP Home app,\u201d and said the effort is part of a successful policy. \u201cThe results speak for themselves: 2 million illegal immigrants have left the United States population since January 20,\u201d the spokesperson said via email.\u00a0<\/p>\n The department declined to address questions about the Salus contract.<\/p>\n \u201cDHS will not comment on pre-decisional procurement matters, nor will the Department speculate on contractor motivations or individual political views,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cAll DHS acquisitions are subject to applicable federal procurement laws and oversight, which ensure transparency, competition, and the prudent use of taxpayer funds.\u201d<\/p>\n This story was reported with the\u00a0<\/em>Project on Government Oversight<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n
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