- Project Homecoming has pivoted to third-country deportation deals due to budget constraints and staffing shortages.
- A record-breaking 45-day DHS shutdown has frozen federal hiring and stalled the 20,000-officer recruitment goal.
- Self-deportation offers expired with low participation, shifting the focus toward forced removals and military-assisted flights.
(UNITED STATES) President Trump’s Project Homecoming has moved from a bold deportation blueprint into a constrained enforcement drive shaped by money problems, a long DHS shutdown, and new third-country deportation deals. The plan still centers on a larger deportation workforce, but the original promise of adding up to 20,000 DHS officers within 60 days has not been reached.
The shift matters far beyond Washington. It affects undocumented immigrants facing faster removals, employers already dealing with labor gaps, and families caught between tighter enforcement and a slower immigration system. According to analysis by VisaVerge.com, the program now shows how enforcement goals, staffing limits, and foreign agreements are reshaping immigration policy at the same time.
The original Project Homecoming push
Project Homecoming launched in early 2025 with a simple goal: expand interior deportation capacity fast. DHS was told to recruit new workers, deputize state and local police, bring in retired federal officers, pull in staff from other agencies, and even use private sector help to reach the 20,000-officer target.
That staffing surge was meant to support a 60-day “self-deportation window.” Undocumented immigrants were offered $1,000 cash and paid travel if they left voluntarily during that period. The promise of possible future legal re-entry was meant to push people out without costly arrests, detention, and court fights.
The plan also carried hard penalties for people who stayed after the window closed, including jail time, property forfeiture, and priority enforcement. Supporters said the hybrid approach would save money because forced deportations often cost more than $10,000 per person once detention and legal delays are added.
Mid-2025 brought the first rollout steps. DHS expanded the 287(g) program, which lets local police help with immigration work, and tied federal money to cooperation with ICE. A detailed overview of the program appears on the official DHS 287(g) page. Even then, the 60-day hiring target was already slipping because the money needed for rapid expansion had not arrived.
Staffing in 2026 is growing, but far below the target
By April 2026, Project Homecoming remains incomplete. ICE has added hundreds of officers through 287(g) growth and internal reassignments, but the full 20,000-officer plan is still out of reach. DHS is also under a shutdown that has lasted more than 45 days, the longest in U.S. history.
The staffing picture now looks more like patchwork than surge. ICE’s deportation workforce has grown to about 8,500 dedicated agents through internal shifts and limited contracts, but that is still well below the original quadrupling goal from a baseline of around 6,000 agents. House Republicans rejected a Senate funding solution, leaving enforcement staffing and detention management strained.
DHS leaders continue to emphasize removals of criminal noncitizens and recent arrivals. Yet money and personnel are also being pulled toward border security and foreign deals. Custody deaths at ICE facilities have risen alongside overcrowding, a warning sign that the system is under pressure.
The self-deportation offer has already expired. Uptake stayed below 50,000 participants, a modest figure compared with the scale of the undocumented population. Distrust, fear, and practical barriers helped keep the numbers down.
Third-country deportation becomes the new pressure valve
As the hiring drive stalled, DHS turned more heavily to third-country deportation agreements. These deals let the government remove people to nations that are not their home countries when origin countries refuse to take them back.
Uganda received its first U.S. flight in April 2026 under a new arrangement. Costa Rica also agreed to accept up to 25 deportees weekly. Officials see this as a faster way to clear cases that might otherwise stall for months or years.
The tactic raises sharp humanitarian questions. Deporting someone to a country where they have no family, no language links, and no stable legal status creates a very different kind of removal. That concern has grown as the administration uses military jets and broader international partnerships to push removals faster.
The legal fights around this approach continue. Judge Brian Murphy’s Guantanamo ruling remains a barrier in some cases, and courts are still weighing the reach of the administration’s methods. At the same time, the government is pushing ahead with agreements that bypass refusal from the country of origin.
Funding is the main brake on the plan
Money remains the biggest obstacle to Project Homecoming. The original proposal needed billions for salaries, training, equipment, and incentives. Estimates for the first year exceeded $25 billion.
That cost reflects the scale of the plan. Average pay of about $120,000 per officer annually adds up quickly when the goal is 20,000 new DHS officers. Congress has debated plans built around as many as one million deportations a year, but partisan gridlock has kept the money from landing.
The shutdown has made the squeeze worse. Hiring is frozen. Operations are slowed. Funds are being redirected from paused asylum processing and visa programs. Critics warn that without fresh appropriations, the staffing target is unrealistic and annual deportations may settle at 400,000-500,000 instead of one million.
There is also a training problem. Rapid deputization means people can be moved into immigration work before they have enough preparation. Past 287(g) controversies showed how quickly mistakes and abuse claims can follow when local officers are pushed into federal enforcement roles.
Enforcement is spreading into other immigration channels
Project Homecoming is only one part of a wider crackdown. Proclamation 10998, issued in December 2025 and effective January 1, 2026, expanded travel bans to 39 countries and suspended visas for 19 high-risk nations, including Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, and Yemen.
The administration has also paused immigrant visas from 75 countries, a move that blocks roughly half of legal immigration. Officials say the change is meant to stop welfare use and tighten screening. Asylum processing is paused or slowed while reviews continue, and H-1B applicants now face stronger social media checks.
Business immigration is also under pressure. H-1B reforms include $100,000 fees for overseas petitions and wage-based lotteries. Employers have felt the strain, especially in agriculture and construction, where workplace raids and tighter hiring rules have reduced labor supply.
At the same time, a federal judge ordered restoration of legal status for hundreds of thousands who came through Biden-era pathways. That ruling adds another layer of uncertainty to an already crowded enforcement calendar.
What the changes mean for families, employers, and communities
For undocumented immigrants, the end of the self-deportation window means a sharper enforcement environment. Mixed-status families face a higher risk of separation. Third-country deportation increases the danger because the destination may have no family links, no support network, and no clear path to stability.
For visa applicants and employers, the effects show up in slower processing, more vetting, and tighter labor supply. Family-sponsored immigration for FY2026 is capped at 226,000, while employment-based visas are capped at 140,000, with per-country caps at 25,620. Businesses also face new scrutiny through Project Firewall, which is aimed at protecting U.S. workers from national origin discrimination.
Local communities are feeling the effects too. Cooperation between police and federal officers can weaken trust in immigrant-heavy neighborhoods. Schools report more absenteeism. Economies in border states and places such as Vermont are absorbing the cost of legal fights, raids, and uncertainty.
The enforcement push also sits inside a broader political fight. Supporters call Project Homecoming a return to rule of law and a way to save money through voluntary departure. Critics say rushed staffing, family trauma, and economic damage will define the policy instead. Undocumented labor supports 8% of GDP, which gives the issue broad economic reach.
Work on Capitol Hill has not stopped entirely. A bipartisan bill circulating in Washington would offer work authorization, but not citizenship, to some undocumented immigrants who arrived before the Biden years, while excluding 3.5 million recent arrivals. That debate shows how far the politics have shifted, even as DHS officers, ICE, and local agencies keep expanding enforcement in uneven and contested ways.
