The tremendous clear and moral Trump administration strikes once more.
The Division of Homeland Safety just slid an virtually $1 billion contract to Salus Worldwide Options, an organization run by William Walters. That staggering sum is for “Mission Homecoming,” the gross DHS program that ostensibly gives money bonuses, free flights, and a “concierge service” at airports for immigrants who self-deport.
Salus has by no means had a federal contract earlier than, however certainly it’s extremely certified and outfitted to handle practically a billion {dollars}, proper?
We’re solely studying about this sleazy deal due to a lawsuit filed by CSI Aviation, which particulars the entire backroom shadiness that went into ensuring that Walters made financial institution.
Walters, unsurprisingly, started greasing the wheels to make this occur even earlier than President Donald Trump gained the 2024 election. He took a belt-and-suspenders strategy, giving $10,000 to a pro-Trump tremendous PAC run by Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem’s friends, and he additionally gave massive bucks to the America First Coverage Institute.
AFPI was mainly MAGA in exile till Trump returned to energy. Based by Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, AFPI has managed to stuff dozens of people into the administration, together with Rob Legislation, a DHS undersecretary of coverage.
In line with the lawsuit, Legislation helped coordinate the competitors for this big trough of cash, however the competitors was mainly faux as hell. CSI Aviation alleges that, first, DHS shared data with Salus to assist with its bid, which triggered an investigation by DHS attorneys.
After the investigation discovered that Salus had basically helped design the contract it was going to bid on, DHS determined to repair this by opening the contract as much as a aggressive bid. It then picked six different firms, which acquired the documentation essential to bid on the contract on Friday, Might 16, with a deadline of 10 AM the next Monday.
Evidently, a weekend was not sufficient time to develop an precise bid for a contract this huge. And by then, Salus already had the advantage of months of discussions with DHS. So shock, shock: Salus gained.
Has Salus ever dealt with something like this? After all not. However now it has practically a billion {dollars} to run a fancy program that doesn’t appear to be working very nicely. In October, ProPublica found that individuals who signed as much as self-deport ended up ready in useless for aircraft tickets and cash that by no means arrived, leaving them stranded and terrified.
Of the roughly 25,000 immigrants who opted to depart, practically half did so on their very own quite than going by the administration’s “concierge service.” However giving an inexperienced firm virtually a billion bucks will certainly repair this.
Walters was already swimming in DHS money, having received $140 million just some weeks in the past to buy six Boeing 737 airplanes for deportations. However he bought that deal by a unique firm of his, Daedalus Aviation. An actual jack of all trades, this man.
And talking of planes, who can neglect that Noem additionally simply got a couple of candy new jets of her personal for $172 million? She instructed Congress that she wanted $50 million for one aircraft, and it isn’t in any respect clear to anybody how she then managed to get two planes for greater than triple the associated fee.
Noem additionally steered $220 million to some longtime buddies within the political promoting world, however that netted U.S. taxpayers some fairly footage of Cosplay Barbie on a horsey, so it was undoubtedly price it.
DHS basically has infinite cash at this level. Because the Brennan Heart put it, the $170 billion allotted for border enforcement within the “One Massive, Stunning Invoice” created a “deportation-industrial advanced.”
Sure, all of that is designed to torment immigrants and drive them overseas. However it’s additionally designed to make the worst individuals very, very wealthy—and DHS is all in.
