{"id":2293,"date":"2026-06-26T17:12:34","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T17:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationwideinterstatemovers.com\/?p=2293"},"modified":"2026-06-26T17:12:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T17:12:34","slug":"ice-barbies-scandal-hit-deportation-contractor-handed-200m-extension-despite-criminal-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationwideinterstatemovers.com\/?p=2293","title":{"rendered":"ICE Barbie\u2019s Scandal-Hit Deportation Contractor Handed $200M Extension Despite Criminal Probe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A contractor under investigation over corruption at Kristi Noem\u2019s Department of Homeland Security has won a $200 million extension despite failing to deliver, the Daily Beast and its investigative Substack PunchUp can reveal. <\/p>\n

Read more Delusional Trump, 80, Fantasizes His Way Out of His Polling Disaster<\/a><\/p>\n

Salus Worldwide Solutions won a three-year, $915 million contract in May 2025 to run Project Homecoming\u2014the Trump administration\u2019s much-trumpeted flagship self-deportation program\u2014even though it was founded just two years earlier and had never worked as a lead contractor for the government before. <\/p>\n

\n

DHS\u2019s own contracting officer and in-house legal team concluded the award had \u201can appearance of impropriety.\u201d Those findings were laid bare in a ruling published in May in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The court found DHS held a competition lasting just days with a handpicked pool of vendors, and had initially tried to award Salus the work without any competition at all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The company\u2019s results have been poor. Its own planning documents projected the removal of 276,000 people in the contract\u2019s first 12 months. But a sworn court statement filed in December by a Salus executive showed that, as of Dec. 1, the government had authorized nearly 35,000 stipends for self-deported individuals\u2014but only 17,406 had been completed. A Salus spokesman said the number was now higher but failed to provide any evidence. DHS was given two weeks to respond but did not return any figures.<\/p>\n

Salus is now subject to congressional investigations. Its name has surfaced in a DHS Inspector General criminal probe into alleged kickbacks to Corey Lewandowski, 52\u2014the chief adviser to and alleged lover of Noem, 54\u2014in exchange for securing government contracts.<\/p>\n

Despite this, DHS handed Salus the $200 million, six-month extension just three days after the contract\u2019s base year expired on May 19, according to federal spending records reviewed by the Daily Beast and PunchUp.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Salus, which has repeatedly denied any illegality or impropriety, said the contracting process \u201cwas fair, legal, without political interference, and competitive,\u201d and that the government \u201cconcluded that Salus had both the best technical approach and the lowest price of any offeror.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewandowski has also denied any impropriety. A source close to him noted that he had left the department 60 days before the extension, and that the decision was made by Markwayne Mullin\u2014Noem\u2019s replacement after Trump fired her in early March.<\/p>\n

Salus, founded by former State Department official William Walters III, submitted an unsolicited proposal to DHS just three days after Trump\u2019s inauguration, court documents show. It then spent weeks in private discussions with agency officials\u2014even naming the contract\u2014before DHS ran a compressed competition that Salus won.<\/p>\n

The court proceedings stemmed from a lawsuit brought by CSI Aviation, a longtime ICE contractor that claims it was wrongfully shut out. Chief Judge Matthew H. Solomson, a Trump appointee, detailed in a May 12 ruling how DHS\u2019s own investigation found agency personnel had traded emails with Salus before the bid, sharing nonpublic details about the contract\u2019s budget and specifications.<\/p>\n

Read more Megyn Kelly Goes on Vile Unhinged Rant Against Immigrants: \u2018Get Out\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

DHS nonetheless issued Salus a waiver, ruling that the pre-bid communications amounted to nothing more than \u201cwell-meaning conversations.\u201d As Mother Jones reported in October, the department had originally planned to hand the deal to Salus without competition before opening it to bidding for two business days\u2014a window CSI called \u201cimpossibly short.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solomson ruled against CSI, finding it had failed to prove it could perform the full scope of the contract, and stopped short of finding bad faith, writing that his examination \u201cdid not yield any evidence of bad faith or unfair dealings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The DHS division overseeing the contract was run until early September by Christopher Pratt, a former State Department colleague of Walters. Internal DHS records seen by Mother Jones showed Pratt scheduling off-site meetings at Salus\u2019 office before the award and personally congratulating Walters afterward. Pratt\u2019s White House nomination to serve as the State Department\u2019s main liaison to the Pentagon was pulled on Sept. 29.<\/p>\n

The corruption allegations surfaced separately. As the Daily Beast reported on March 19, a Salus representative allegedly told officials at a marketing firm: \u201cWe are guaranteed this contract, but we need to make sure we are properly thanking the person who gave it to us\u201d\u2014a reference to Lewandowski, sources told NBC News, which first reported the claims.<\/p>\n

A lawyer for Salus denied the accounts as \u201centirely false.\u201d The company threatened to sue NBC in an April 2 letter but never followed up, a company source said. The NBC article remains live.<\/p>\n

The DHS inspector general has since opened a criminal investigation into the awarding of $220 million in advertising contracts to separate companies, and Democratic senators have demanded that Salus preserve all communications with Lewandowski.<\/p>\n

House Oversight Ranking Member Rep. Robert Garcia, 47, has written to Walters, warning that Lewandowski \u201cmay have used his position\u2026 to enrich himself while serving as a special government employee by shaking down contractors for kickbacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Daily Beast and PunchUp contacted DHS and Pratt for comment. A Homeland Security spokesperson said Mullin extended the task order \u201cto ensure the Department can continue administering available voluntary return options,\u201d and that the move \u201cdoes not alter DHS enforcement authorities, immigration policies, or operational priorities.\u201d <\/p>\n

Read more Longtime Fox News Star Announces Her Departure<\/a><\/p>\n

Pratt did not respond.<\/p>\n

\n

*For the full article and many more scoops, head over to PunchUp.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A contractor under investigation over corruption at Kristi Noem\u2019s Department of Homeland Security has won a $200 million extension despite failing to deliver, the Daily Beast and its investigative Substack PunchUp can reveal. Read more Delusional Trump, 80, Fantasizes His Way Out of His Polling Disaster Salus Worldwide Solutions won a three-year, $915 million contract […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nICE Barbie\u2019s Scandal-Hit Deportation Contractor Handed $200M Extension Despite Criminal Probe - Nationwide Inter State Movers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationwideinterstatemovers.com\/?p=2293\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ICE Barbie\u2019s Scandal-Hit Deportation Contractor Handed $200M Extension Despite Criminal Probe - Nationwide Inter State Movers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A contractor under investigation over corruption at Kristi Noem\u2019s Department of Homeland Security has won a $200 million extension despite failing to deliver, the Daily Beast and its investigative Substack PunchUp can reveal. 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