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The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that discussions are underway.
Immigrants are being disappeared and their rights defied in court while DHS weighs a game show—and sells citizenship to the rich.
The Department of Homeland Security is reviewing a pitch for a reality TV show in which immigrants compete for U.S. citizenship, while simultaneously disappearing people without due process, defying court orders, and rolling out a $5 million cash-for-residency scheme.
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According toThe Wall Street Journal, the show would allow immigrants legally in the country to complete challenges like mining for gold and assembling Model Ts as they travel across the U.S. One contestant would be eliminated each week, and the winners would be granted citizenship. Duck Dynasty’s Rob Worsoff is the producer behind the pitch. DHS confirmed to the paper that the idea is under review.
The idea comes as DHS has continued to increase its profile.
Related: Trump and El Salvador's president attack transgender people during White House meeting
This week, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem refused to help locate 31-year-old Andry José Hernández Romero, a gay Venezuelan asylum-seeker deported to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison. Hernández Romero had passed a credible fear interview and was awaiting a court hearing when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deported him based on a tattoo misidentified as gang-related. He hasn’t been heard from in more than a month.
“No one knows if he’s even alive,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, a gay California Democrat, who pleaded with Noem in a hearing on Wednesday to request a wellness check. She refused.
Related: Gay Venezuelan asylum-seeker ‘disappeared’ to Salvadoran mega-prison under Trump order, Maddow reveals
Meanwhile, DHS is defying a federal court order to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father of three deported despite a judge’s injunction. A federal judge called the government’s stonewalling “an exercise in utter frustration,” USA Today reports.
The administration is also quietly testing a $5 million “Trump Gold Card” visa. Billionaire Elon Musk, President Donald Trump’s top campaign donor, confirmed the program is in a “quiet trial.”
He wrote on X (formerly Twitter): We’re doing a quiet trial to make sure the system works properly. Once it is fully tested, it will be rolled out to the public with an announcement by the President.”
Critics say the program is illegal without congressional approval.
Noem’s DHS has spent over $200 million on a national ad campaign telling undocumented immigrants to “go home.” On a recent trip to CECOT, she posed for cameras in front of prisoners, many held without due process, wearing a $50,000 Rolex.
“This is sick,” Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from Texas, wrote on X. “Under the Trump Administration we lose more of our humanity every day.”
