Forgot Your Password?

New to The Nation? Subscribe

Print subscriber? Activate your online access

.nation-small__b{fill:#fff;}

Meet ICE’s Secret Canadian Partner

The Canadian security company GardaWorld is manning detention facilities like Alligator Alcatraz. It is far from the only Canadian-based firm in bed with ICE

Demonstrators protest against GardaWorld after the security company was awarded over $100 million in ICE contracts.

If you’ve never heard of GardaWorld before, you’ve likely seen them. As the largest private security firm globally, GardaWorld’s armored cars and personnel can be found everywhere from Kabul to the San Fernando Valley. But, the Canadian firm has recently ventured into new territory: the notorious South Florida Detention Facility, Alligator Alcatraz. 

Last summer, the US-based subsidiary of the corporation, GardaWorld Federal Services, was found to be one of several Canadian-based companies to have entered into contracts with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). GardaWorld’s involvement with ICE surfaced in July, when the Montreal Gazette revealed that the firm had posted job listings for armed guards who would be stationed in Ochopee, Florida. The requirements included holding a Florida gun license, one year of armed experience, and legally owning a registered semiautomatic handgun. 

The reported stationing of GardaWorld security and correctional officers at Alligator Alcatraz was only one piece of the firm’s larger involvement in the US’s deportation strategy. A month later, The Globe and Mail confirmed that GardaWorld Federal Services, based in Arlington, Virginia, had signed on to $138 million worth of ICE contracts to aid with an “emergency detention” program, according to federal procurement records. And, in early March, the firm was awarded around $313 million in contracts to operate a detention center in Surprise, Arizona.  

Before its foray into detention center-management, GardaWorld—founded and headquartered in Montreal—served as a primary security service for local universities. Today, Canadian students at institutions like Université du Québec à Montréal, Toronto Metropolitan University, and McGill, must contend with a new reality: The officers policing their classrooms are part of the same company that is providing the manpower to staff brutal ICE facilities. 

“It’s frustrating because it makes me feel that the US is so economically tied to Canada,” reflected a third-year McGill student from Minneapolis, Minnesota, who wished to remain anonymous for her safety. Reflecting on the happenings in her hometown, she said, “Seeing what my neighbors, family, and friends are doing down there is really beautiful.” But, learning of Canada’s under-reported complicity in the atrocities has made her feel that she is “missing out on the chance to do something collectively about it.” 

“There are all of these connections to US political choices, to the machinery of the military-industrial complex, and to the US prison system,” she further told The Nation. “I would have never expected for campus security to be tied to Alligator Alcatraz. That’s just crazy.” 

According to McGill professor Barry Eidlin, the realization that campus security is part of a larger political system has become increasingly common among the student body. “It’s a link that has been made possible as a result of the administration’s reactions to  Palestine solidarity activism,” he said. “The university has responded to campus........

© The Nation