Donald Trump's New $2.3B Self Deportation Scheme 'Looks and Feels Like Trafficking', Immigration Lawyer Warns

The Trump administration is seeking up to $2.3 billion (£1.69 million) for a new self deportation scheme that would pay unaccompanied migrant children to 'choose' to leave the United States, prompting an immigration lawyer to warn the arrangement 'looks and feels like human trafficking.'

The proposed contract follows a scandal-hit $915 million (£670 million) award to Salus Worldwide Solutions in May 2025 and has drawn sharp criticism from lawmakers and advocates.

The original deal made Salus the lead federal contractor for Project Homecoming, a programme that offers cash and flights to undocumented immigrants who agree to self-deport. Salus, a company barely two years old at the time with no prior work as a lead federal contractor, has since faced corruption allegations over how it won the contract.

The new draft contract contains no specific provisions for protecting the children it intends to target. It states that payouts for minors will go only to 'Government-designated adult recipients,' leaving advocates alarmed about safeguards.

A Contract Without Child Protections

Rekha Sharma-Crawford, an award-winning immigration attorney, told PunchUp, the Daily Beast's sister Substack, that the arrangement 'looks and feels a lot like human trafficking.' Her warning came after reviewing the draft terms, which include stipends of up to $4,000 (£2,900) per person and a 1 per cent tax on payouts.

Representative Bennie Thompson, ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, called the focus on minors 'gross and un-American.'

The new contract also contains provisions for crews to enroll migrants already detained at 35 facilities, with mobile 'rover' units roaming across the country on request.

A DHS spokesperson said it would be 'inappropriate to comment' until the award process ends. Salus did not respond to requests for comment.

The draft contract introduces stipend tiers and requires winning bidders to use commercial tracing tools to locate migrants who do not respond to outreach, alongside a taxpayer-funded advertising campaign in ten cities. Bids are due on 2 September.

Sources reported that Salus is considered unlikely to win the new contract, which drew interest from Palantir, GEO Group and CSI Aviation at a closed briefing last week.

If Salus is out, the next contractor inherits a programme already under fire for signing up detainees who were already in ICE custody and branding their departures 'voluntary.'

Leaked figures show roughly half of migrants signed up to Donald Trump's 'voluntary' self-deportation programme were recruited once they were already in ICE custody.

About 132,000 have already left the US, with 70,000 more queued up, under what Salus describes as a 'humane' alternative to shackled removals.

Court Oversight Tightens as Flores Battle Intensifies

The contract push comes as a federal judge in Los Angeles appointed an independent monitor and special master to oversee the Trump administration's compliance with the Flores settlement, an agreement that sets the rules for how migrant children can be detained.

US District Court Chief Judge Dolly M Gee excoriated the Trump administration over its treatment of migrant children in a pair of decisions this week, saying she saw no choice but to name a new enforcer to protect kids it has detained. 'Defendants cannot claim amnesia as to the history of the case,' Gee wrote on Monday in an order to force compliance with the Flores Settlement.

The nearly 30-year-old legal agreement ensures minimum standards for housing, education and medical care for migrant kids in federal custody, as well as limits on how long they can be held in government facilities.

The next morning, the judge named attorney Andrea Sheridan Ordin as special master and Dr Paul H Wise as independent monitor to enforce the agreement, over the objections of federal officials.

Young detainees have described inedible food, substandard medical care and callous treatment at the hands of guards and staff at immigration facilities. Multiple parents recounted a Christmas photo-op in which an ICE agent dressed as Santa Claus shoved away children who tried to hug him, then vanished with his treats the moment the cameras disappeared.

Others told of children suffering serious ailments who were shooed off with Tylenol. 'At a minimum, the evidence regarding medical care is conflicting and the reported differences in reality are stark,' Gee wrote in her order.

The administration filed appeals seeking to rescind the Flores settlement, which dates to the 1990s. Their stalemate heated up this summer, when a fresh appeal seeking to undo the agreement reached the 9th Circuit.

The appellate panel voiced serious doubts about undoing the consent decree at oral arguments in June. But experts said the administration likely would appeal an unfavourable ruling to the Supreme Court, leaving the fate of hundreds of children and their families in doubt.

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