MONTREAL — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has contracted a Montreal-based security firm again, this time to assist its efforts in Texas. ICE awarded two new contracts to the American branch of GardaWorld Security in late August. Together, these contracts have a minimum value of close to US$118 million (C$165 million) and could reach a value of over US$1.3 billion (C$1.9 billion). The first contract is for the renovation of a warehouse in San Antonio into a new detention centre and the operation of that centre. Its minimum value is around US$17.3 million and its maximum value is over US$1 billion. The second contract is for armed ground transportation of people detained by ICE in Texas. The contract spans the period between Sept. 1, 2026, and Aug. 31, 2027, with a possible extension for three more years. The minimum value of this contract is around US$100.5 million. Its value could reach around US$382.3 million. On Sept. 10, days after the second contract was awarded, an American security contractor formally challenged ICE’s decision to award the contract to GardaWorld. ICE has suspended the contract due to this challenge. GardaWorld is an international security firm headquartered in Montreal. In 2022, it received a $300-million investment from the government of Quebec “to support its global strategic vision,” according to a press release. In March, ICE awarded a US$313-million contract to the American branch of GardaWorld to work on renovation and operation of another detention facility in Arizona. GardaWorld previously worked on the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz,” a detention facility in the Florida Everglades. The facility closed this summer after months of protests, lawsuits and allegations of inhumane living conditions for detainees. On Monday, a report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general outlined how detainees were held for up to two hours in small metal enclosures used as “calming areas,” a practice that “does not meet standards for humane treatment,” the report read. The report listed a number of other concerns with the conditions in the facility, such as access to clean drinking water and to legal representation. The Department of Homeland Security said in response to the report that any allegations of inhumane conditions are false. In an email to The Canadian Press, GardaWorld said it could not comment on the operations of the Florida detention centre. “To our knowledge, the operations characterized as non-compliant in the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report were not performed by GardaWorld Federal,” a spokesperson said. Last week, Democratic U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, who represents a district that covers part of San Antonio, said he was “shocked” to hear the federal government had awarded another contract to GardaWorld, despite the allegations around “Alligator Alcatraz.” “This kind of facility goes against San Antonio’s values,” he wrote on Facebook. Karen Hamilton, director of Above Ground, an organization pushing for accountability for Canadian companies working abroad, said the new contracts were “disappointing, but not surprising.” Above Ground started following GardaWorld after the “Alligator Alcatraz” contract, she said, calling the company’s response to the outcry around the condition in the facility “dismissive.” “There is just a general situation where you have a context of heightened human rights risk and serious concerns about whether GardaWorld had done proper due diligence, was taking proper steps to ensure that this Canadian company would not be involved in that abuse,” she said. She said the new contracts fit into GardaWorld’s philosophy of expansion. “It’s not surprising that it’s now going after other contracts. These are lucrative contracts,” she said. Above Ground is lobbying for oversight and accountability for Canadian companies involved in potential human rights abuses abroad. Hamilton said the Canadian government has very few mechanisms to hold a company like GardaWorld to account for their actions abroad. “It’s a company that was invested in by Canadians, by people from Quebec, and there are concerns from those same people about the operations of this company abroad.… That’s a real break between the investment that was provided for the expansion of this company and where the company chose to go with that,” she said. The fact that the contracts involve the American branch of the company does not shield the Canadian parent company, said Hamilton. “They all feed through to the top. So the parent company, which is headquartered in Montreal, benefits from the activities of its subsidiaries. The leadership benefits — it profits from the actions of its subsidiaries,” she said. With that profit comes a responsibility from the Canadian leadership over the actions of its branches abroad, she added. A spokesperson for Quebec’s economy ministry declined to comment on GardaWorld’s contracts with ICE. “GardaWorld is respecting all its engagement tied to (provincial) investment, which predates the company’s involvement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” he wrote in an email. Both GardaWorld and ICE refused to comment on their latest contracts and GardaWorld did not comment further on the “Alligator Alcatraz” allegations. With files from The Associated Press
