Top Homeland Security Democrat Demands Cancellation of Massive DHS Self-Deportation Contract

Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, wants DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to cancel a nearly billion dollar contract awarded last year to a company called Salus Worldwide to carry out a Trump administration program to encourage undocumented immigrants to self-deport.

But Salus, in an unusually aggressive move, is hitting back, arguing that criticism of its contract is being drummed up by larger DHS contractors that it accuses of undermining the Trump administration’s voluntary deportation efforts to pad their own profits.

DHS in May 2025 gave Salus a contract worth up to $915 million to help administer what the administration calls “Project Homecoming,” by providing free plane tickets and $1,000 payments to immigrants who sign agreements to give up legal challenges to deportation and leave the country voluntarily.

The award drew a lawsuit from CSI Aviation, a major ICE contractor, alleging that the contract was “unlawful, rushed, and noncompetitive.” It also drew scrutiny from inside DHS. One department official said the procurement was flawed and “created an appearance of favoritism toward Salus,” as Mother Jones and POGO Investigates reported.

In a letter sent Friday to Mullin, Thompson called it “incomprehensible” that DHS this May okayed a six-month extension of Salus’ contract. “You must take immediate action to stop this wasteful and corrupt spending,” the Mississippi Democrat wrote.

Thompson’s letter augurs what is sure to be intense scrutiny of DHS contracting by congressional Democrats if they win control of the House or the Senate next year. It comes as the Trump administration, which lacks the manpower to forcefully expel the millions of migrants it wants to push out of the country, relies heavily on “self-deportation” to persuade migrants to leave. After the Supreme Court recently allowed the administration to strip migrants from Haiti and Syria of temporary protected status, Mullin urged people from those countries to leave the US voluntarily.

Mullin is evaluating how to proceed with the Salus contract along with other DHS awards made under former Secretary Kristi Noem that have drawn controversy. Though DHS extended Salus’ contract in May, Walters said the contract is being recompeted with a new award in November.

Thompson, citing reporting by Mother Jones and POGO along with the Daily Beast, noted that Salus won the self-deportation contract in 2025 despite limited federal contracting experience, after Salus’ owner William Walters, a former State Department official, developed ties to top DHS officials. Walters in October 2024 donated $10,000 to a political action committee tied to Kristi Noem, who was DHS Secretary when Salus’ contract was awarded.

A federal judge this year threw out the lawsuit by CSI Aviation. The judge said that the contract had been awarded legally and noted that his review of the procurement process did not reveal “any evidence of bad faith or unfair dealings.”

But Thompson is just the latest of a series of congressional Democrats who have questioned the Salus contract.

Thompson’s letter states that Salus “is also part of a sweeping review by the DHS Office of Inspector General looking into whether Corey Lewandowski,” who formerly worked as a top advisor to Noem at DHS, “accepted kickbacks for granting government contracts.” Lewandowski has denied playing a role in DHS contracting or seeking kickbacks. Salus has charged in letters to lawmakers that an NBC News report that linked it to Lewandowski was false and “defamatory.” Salus threatened to sue NBC over the report but has not done so.

In a letter sent Monday to Thompson, Walters defended Salus’ performance and offered to meet with Thompson and work with the committee to “resolve this misunderstanding.”

In a statement to Mother Jones and POGO, Walters said that “Salus remains proud of the humane and dignified support that it has provided to over 130,000 people that have chosen to take the Assisted Voluntary Departure pathway.” Walters asserts that those efforts have saved US taxpayers “over $2.2 billion.” He derived that estimate from the added expense imposed by involuntary deportations, with extended detainments in government facilities.

Walters argues that those added costs boost the bottom line of contractors that provide detainment facilities and mandatory deportation out of the US. He pointed to GEO Group, the private prison behemoth that provides detention facilities to DHS, and CSI Aviation, the company that protested Salus’ contract and that provides flights for migrants being forcefully expelled from the US.

“Congressional letters have fallen victim to bogus tabloid reporting standards engineered by companies such as GEO Group and CSI Aviation who stand to profit the most from longer detention and custodial deportation of immigrants in chains,” Walters said in his statement to Mother Jones and POGO.

Walters noted that the GEO Group’s political action committee has given Thompson’s campaigns thousands of dollars since 2010. And he pointed out that Thompson’s former longtime chief of staff, Lanier Avant, since 2019 has worked as a lobbyist for GEO Group. Avant’s recent lobbying disclosure forms say his work for the company focuses on the House of Representatives.

Avant did not respond to inquiries. Nor did spokespeople for GEO Group and CSI Aviation.

A Homeland Security Committee aide questioned Walters’ claims: “There is nothing ‘humane and dignified’ about helping migrants deport out of fear because DHS ran advertising campaigns threatening to hunt them down.” The aide said Salus’ claims about savings rely on a dubious calculation that all migrants who have left the country under Project Homecoming would have been detained and incurred costs to house and feed. “Plus, how many beds is the government already paying for whether in use or not?” the staffer asked.

The suggestion that GEO Group is influencing Thompson, who has been the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee for more than 20 years, is complicated by Thompson’s record of aggressive oversight of GEO Group and other contractors. Last month, Thompson and committee Democrats ripped DHS and GEO Group over conditions at the Delaney Hall detention facility in New Jersey, which the contractor operates. “Given DHS’s and GEO Group’s unwillingness to address these deplorable conditions and treat persons detained there humanely, we demand that you close Delaney Hall immediately,” the lawmakers wrote. Committee Democrats also held a field hearing near the facility.

“If DHS or any of its contractors have engaged in waste, fraud, or abuse, we will investigate and hold them accountable on behalf of the American people,” Thompson said in a statement. “This is a fact.”

This story was reported with Mother Jones.