Fury is mounting after the private contractor linked to Florida’s controversial ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ detention complex was awarded a $313 million federal contract to open a second immigration processing facility near schools and neighborhoods in Arizona.
The Department of Homeland Security has selected GardaWorld Federal Services LLC to convert a 418,400-square-foot warehouse in Surprise, Arizona, into a 1,500-bed ICE processing and detention center, according to federal spending records.
The decision has sparked alarm among local officials and residents because the company already provides security services at the Everglades detention facility dubbed ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ which has faced lawsuits over environmental concerns and criticism over alleged conditions inside the site.
Under the agreement, the contractor will also supply what officials described as ‘wraparound services’ needed to operate the site.
Those services include security, logistics, medical care and administrative support – functions the company says it provides for federal, state and local agencies across the country.
The new planned site would sit near the intersection of Sweetwater Avenue and Dysart Road, an area surrounded by industrial buildings but also located near residential neighborhoods, grocery stores, restaurants and several schools.
That proximity has alarmed local leaders.
Surprise City Council member Chris Judd, whose district includes the site, said he strongly opposes the location.
‘I still don’t like the location,’ Judd said to AZCentral. ‘I don’t like the idea of a federal detention facility there.’
This would be the location of the new facility in Surprise, Arizona
The warehouse sits directly across the street from thousands of homes
GardaWorld Federal Services LLC, which runs Alligator Alcatraz, was awarded a $313.4m DHS contract to convert a warehouse in Surprise, Arizona, into a 1,500-bed ICE processing facility.
He warned that the project would effectively place a federal detention complex directly inside a growing suburban community.
To Judd, the central issue is not immigration enforcement itself, but where the facility is being built.
‘What ICE wants to carry out will be smack in the middle of the city,’ he said.
The contract was awarded March 6 and is scheduled to run through March 5, 2027, although the federal government has the option to extend it to February 2029.
If all options are exercised, GardaWorld Federal could ultimately receive as much as $704 million.
The Montreal-based security company has already been awarded over $100 million in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contracts.
Earlier ICE planning documents estimated it would cost about $150 million to retrofit the warehouse and roughly $180 million to operate the facility during its first three years.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security defended the effort, saying the government is partnering with experienced contractors to build modern immigration processing hubs.
GardaWorld Federal already provides security services at the Florida immigration detention complex known as ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
President Donald Trump tours Alligator Alcatraz in Ochopee, Florida in July 2025. The compled is a 5,000-bed facility, located at an abandoned airfield in the Everglades wetlands
Demonstrators are seen protesting against Alligator Alcatraz outside the center in January
Demonstrators carry signs as they participate in a protest against GardaWorld in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in February. GardaWorld is a Montreal-based security company that has been awarded over $100 million in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) contracts
‘These facilities will be designed as full-service campuses, to include immigration hearing rooms, intake and screening, medical services, access to counsel, religious services, recreational areas, technology for virtual communication with family, food, hygiene products, and full-case processing capability,’ DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement.
Bis said the goal is to create centralized facilities capable of handling immigration cases from start to finish.
‘The goal is to create end-to-end operational hubs that can adjudicate cases efficiently without reliance on a dispersed infrastructure,’ she said.
City officials say they are still trying to determine exactly how the facility will affect local resources.
Judd said staff across multiple city departments have begun assessing potential impacts, including demands on police, fire services and infrastructure.
Ordinarily, he noted, a development project of that size would be required to pay impact fees to cover strain on city services. But federal projects do not have to comply with the same rules.
That means local taxpayers could end up covering the cost of additional services, he warned.
Judd also hopes federal officials will voluntarily go through the city’s zoning process – even though under the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution, they are not required to.
An aerial view shows ‘Alligator Alcatraz’, ICE detention center at Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida
Demonstrators protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and demanding the closure of the immigrant detention center known as ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ outside the center at the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport in Ochopee, Florida in January
DHS Spokesperson Lauren Bis said the government is partnering with experienced contractors to build modern immigration processing hubs
‘We can push, we can jump and we can scream, but none of it matters,’ Judd said. ‘At the end of the day, they would have to change their mind.’
The debate has exposed unexpected political divisions in Surprise.
Judd said many residents, including some conservatives, have voiced support for the project.
But city council meetings have also seen a surge of residents demanding the government halt or relocate the plan.
For many critics, the concern is not immigration enforcement itself but the scale and placement of the facility inside an established community.
Opposition has also emerged on Capitol Hill.
Three Democratic members of Congress, Greg Stanton, Yassamin Ansari and Adelita Grijalva, sent letters to federal officials and GardaWorld questioning the decision to award the contract.
‘We are greatly concerned by reporting that GardaWorld, a security contractor, has never been directly contracted to oversee any detention facility but nevertheless has been awarded this significant contract,’ the lawmakers wrote.
They also criticized the procurement process used to award the contract, saying it went through a Department of Defense system rather than a traditional public bidding process.
Three Democratic members of Congress, Greg Stanton, Yassamin Ansari and Adelita Grijalva, sent letters to federal officials and GardaWorld questioning the decision to award the contract
Republican Congressman Paul Gosar, whose district includes the proposed site, has previously demanded answers from federal officials about the project
Alligator Alcatraz officially opened on July 3, 2025 after being rapidly build at the end of June
Demonstrators carry signs as they participate in a protest against GardaWorld in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, last month
‘Furthermore, the contract was awarded through a Department of Defense procurement system, bypassing a normal bidding process that would have ensured community buy-in and necessary due diligence,’ they wrote.
The lawmakers asked ICE acting director Todd Lyons, former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, and Pete Dordal Jr., president of GardaWorld Federal, to explain how the company was selected and how safety and compliance reviews would be conducted.
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes has suggested she may consider filing a public nuisance lawsuit to stop the project, though no formal legal action has been filed.
Her office says it is monitoring a separate case in Maryland, where a federal judge ordered a pause on construction of another ICE facility being built in a warehouse.
That facility was being developed by another contractor, KVG LLC, and the halt came after Maryland’s attorney general sued to stop the project.
Republican Congressman Paul Gosar, whose district includes the proposed site, previously demanded answers from federal officials about the project.
He said the community deserved transparency about how the facility would operate.
When DHS responded with a letter outlining the project, Gosar described the response as ‘transparent.’
