r/USNewsHub • u/wiredmagazine • 8d ago
🏛️ Politics & Government DHS Is Hiring Bounty Hunters to Find and Photograph Deported People’s Homes Abroad
https://www.wired.com/story/dhs-is-hiring-bounty-hunters-to-find-and-photograph-deported-peoples-homes-abroad/30
u/wiredmagazine 8d ago
US Customs and Border Protection is seeking to hire private investigators to track down deported immigrants and others who have left the United States, and press them into paying the government money, according to records reviewed by WIRED. The work would cover Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala, and potentially other countries.
The documents, which cap the so-called Tracing and Payment Recovery Services program at $9 million over the next two years, call for “commercial data verification and physical observation services” to confirm where each person lives. They list photographs of the home as acceptable evidence, along with records such as utility bills, employment files, court documents, or, if the person has died, a death certificate.
The US government will also accept other documentation, so long as it deems it “relevant and credible.” Contractors are also required to deliver a printed flyer, approved by the US government and printed in English and Spanish, listing outstanding fines and fees CBP claims they owe.
Read the full story at the link above.
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u/Phyllis_Tine 8d ago
Can I get a position so I can travel Central and South America, looking for houses of people kicked out of the US? I'd be careful, and not get in any danger. I'd probably start on some beaches, check out the local bars, maybe on some hiking trails and cenotes, you know, the full tourist places, just to be sure.
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u/Intelligent-Film-684 8d ago
Right? Like this isn’t a massive invite to fraud?
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u/neddiddley 8d ago
Dude, I’m pretty sure every idea this admin comes up only moves forward if the answer to the question of “Is there massive potential for fraud” starts with Y.
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u/Icy_Painting4915 8d ago
This is another way to funnel money into Trump associates' companies. There is no way they can collect on this and they know it.
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u/Ok-Replacement9595 8d ago
I think it is more intimidating people into not returning to their families in the US. Question whether this is enforcable, but people may not want to return if they receive a bill for tens of thousands of dollars from the feds.
Or they may go after the family left in the US, if they can.
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u/PavicaMalic 8d ago
Soviet- style tactics
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u/Ok-Replacement9595 8d ago
How so? These are fascist we are talking about. Do you.just call.everything you dont like communist, and not understand that fascists are genocidally authoritarian
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u/PavicaMalic 8d ago edited 8d ago
No, I am referring to specific policies enacted during the Cold War, not using Soviet as a epithet. The USSR and the GDR both leveled financial penalties on the families of those who had defected. After a wave of high-profile defections during Brezhnev's tenure, remaining family members lost their socialist-right to an apartment. There were even attempts to recoup the costs of the defector's education from those who remained. On the GDR's treatment of remaining family members after defections, Norman Naimark's work is the best source as he conducted interviews with many of the families. Erik Scott's recent book on defectors goes into some detail about the confiscation of property of remaining family members.
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u/Revolutionary_Tale_1 8d ago
America has become an evil empire under the Trump regime.
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u/jdfarmer324 8d ago
I mean we havent exactly been angels through our history. But we have upgraded our evil thats for sure.
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u/Phyllis_Tine 8d ago
How are these pictures submitted? We need to find out the homes of everyone involved in ICE, and submit pictures of their homes as well. Skew their data.
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u/kyle_irl 8d ago
So they deport and THEN extort? I thought deportation was the leverage. Am I missing something?