DHS awarded the contract to Salus Worldwide in May 2025 for "Project Homecoming." The program gives free plane tickets and $1,000 payments to immigrants who sign agreements to give up legal challenges to deportation and leave voluntarily.

From our archive: Rep. Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, asked DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to cancel a self-deportation contract worth up to $915 million.

ICE reported 33 deaths in custody in 2025, the most in over two decades, and 23 so far this year as of Aug. 11, 2026. Our investigation found that four people have died at Adelanto since last August, the most of any facility during that period.

Our investigation analyzed 500 ODO inspection reports at 175 facilities, FYs 2022 to 2026. Average number of detention inspection violations dropped by nearly 70% between FY22 and FY25. About 74% of FY26 inspections (as of July 23) were rated as “Superior.”

It found staff at the facility didn’t perform wellness checks, provide needed medications, or pass abnormal vital signs to higher-level staff. He was sent to a hospital 4 days later and died Sept. 22.

One review covers a man who sought care at Adelanto ICE Processing Center in California on Sept. 17, 2025.

On Sept. 25, ICE posted 33 mortality reviews of people who died in its custody since 2019. By Sept. 30 they were offline, per @theamericanproject.bsky.social, which has downloaded them. Almost all involved failures in medical care.

The request cites TechOps' ability to provide "field-based exploitation capabilities," without external networks. ICE drew scrutiny for contracting with the same company for cell-site simulators, or fake cell phone towers, that collect data from nearby phones

According to Azadeh Shahshahani, the legal and advocacy director at Project South in 2023, isolation for long periods “is cause for significant concern.” “Two migrants died at Stewart by suicide after being held in solitary for prolonged periods.”

Some people were placed in isolation for days or weeks on end. In one case, a man was placed in medical isolation. Within a day, there were no further concerns — yet he remained isolated for an additional 16 days.

Here’s the thing: ICE documents don’t generally use the term “solitary confinement.” Instead, they use terms like “medical isolation,” “segregated housing,” and “special management units.” But the terminology can obscure the conditions involved.

In 2023, we looked into previously confidential records revealing conditions inside ICE detention facilities. The records showed a concerning use of solitary confinement, including cases where people remained isolated long after the risk had passed.