How a Montreal-based security firm stands to cash in on U.S. immigration crackdown

As U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration moves to expand immigration detention capacity, Montreal-based GardaWorld is poised to profit.

GardaWorld Federal Services, the U.S. subsidiary of the private security firm headquartered in Montreal, won a $313-million US contract earlier this month to convert a warehouse into a detention centre in Surprise, Ariz., a fast-growing suburb outside Phoenix. The contract could potentially be worth $704 million US — nearly $1 billion Cdn.

The company already helps operate a notorious detention facility in Florida, dubbed Alligator Alcatraz, which is facing legal challenges for alleged human rights abuses.

GardaWorld has not been named as a defendant in any of those lawsuits and there is no evidence of their involvement in alleged wrongdoing at Alligator Alcatraz.

But human rights activists say the contracts and the company’s association with the United States’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raises accountability questions back home, after GardaWorld got financial backing from the Quebec government in 2022.