DHS moves forward with Surprise ICE facility, awards $313M contract to private company

The Trump administration is moving forward with converting a 418,000-square-foot warehouse in metro Phoenix into an immigrant processing facility, which could hold up to 1,500 people.

According to USAspending.gov, a federal spending website, on March 6, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) awarded a contract to Gardaworld Federal Services LLC, a Virginia-based private company, to renovate the Surprise warehouse.

With a budget ranging from $313 to $704 million, the private company is tasked with the renovation of the structure located off of Sweetwater Avenue and Dysart Road, which would “serve as a processing and detention facility.”

The contract has a completion date of March 5, 2027, with the possibility of extending through 2029. A specific opening date remained unclear.

The facility was quietly purchased by the DHS for over $70 million on Jan. 23, sold by New York-based real estate LLC Rockefeller Group.

State leaders and community members have been voicing their opposition to the facility since the purchase was disclosed. U.S. senators, congress members and the state attorney general have sent letters to the DHS expressing “serious concerns” and demanding answers.

Similar letters have been crafted in opposition to the conversion of a shuttered state prison into an ICE detention center in Marana. Just last month, the DHS confirmed its intended use, substantiating concerns that community members and state leaders have been warning about since the fall of 2025.

In October, CALÓ News published a story that revealed MTC’s controversial track record — per numerous government oversight reports — including staffing shortfalls, medical neglect and poor facility conditions at its five ICE detention centers across the U.S., which the company manages.

The incoming Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities are the latest additions to the growing list of properties the federal government intends to convert into immigration prisons and processing centers.

Arizona is already home to five detention facilities: the Central Arizona Florence Correctional Center, the Eloy Detention Center, the San Luis Regional Detention Center and two facilities at the Florence Service Processing Center, which are split into a main holding facility and a short-term “staging” facility meant to hold detainees for a maximum of 72 hours.