As people of faith representing the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO) — a coalition of 53 churches, synagogues, and mosques — we're outraged by the systemic mistreatment of immigrants by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the private corporations profiting from it.
During a year of escalating egregious actions by ICE, we searched for a way to put our faith into action. We didn’t have to look far.
Two private prison companies, CoreCivic and The GEO Group, operate more than half of ICE’s roughly 60,000 detention beds. Both have long track records of alleged human rights abuses and mistreatment. These companies don't operate in a vacuum; they require capital to survive.
Citizens Bank, headquartered in nearby Providence, provides the critical financing that allows these companies to grow and prosper. By helping the companies access more than $2 billion in capital since 2012, these companies are expanding in lockstep with ICE’s spiraling agenda, which is ripping communities apart.
This must stop — and GBIO has launched a campaign against Citizens to do just that.
It's time for Citizens Bank to stop financing private prisons and align its investments with the values of the communities it serves.
GBIO has a long track record of using our "people power" and our money to achieve positive change. And, yes, one of our proudest moments involved Citizens Bank.
Two decades ago, we leveraged our collective capital at Citizens Bank ($10 million) to secure better terms for our immigrant members sending remittances to their families. The partnership also included a financial literacy program that served over 1,000 people, many of them Haitians. We were proud to bank with Citizens, and I was proud to be a member of the Bank’s Board of Directors at that time.
But the Bank has changed.
Today, Citizens Bank finances two prison company giants that are seeing record profits from ICE’s unprecedented mass incarceration push. GEO Group’s CEO has boasted on recent earnings calls of record contracts from ICE and the $100 million of expanded credit from Citizens that will enable his company to meet growing ICE demands.
These aren’t abstract business deals; they have human costs. This system separates families for profit and denies basic dignity to detainees.
The consequences are fatal. Emmanuel Damas, a Haitian man from Boston, died in February because a CoreCivic facility in Arizona failed to treat a simple toothache. He is among 18 people who have died in ICE custody this year, half of them at CoreCivic and GEO Group facilities.
Citizens Bank is complicit in a system where mistreatment and abuse are everyday realities. While most major banks in this country walked away from the private prison industry in 2019, Citizens Bank chose to strengthen its ties.
Enough is enough.
Six weeks ago we sent a letter requesting a meeting with Bruce Van Saun, CEO of Citizens. Three weeks ago, eight GBIO leaders went to the bank’s annual shareholder meeting in Providence. We stood before Mr. Van Saun asking two simple questions:
Will you stop financing this deplorable industry? Will you meet with us?
Despite the letter and the in-person request, GBIO still doesn't have a date to meet. Citizens may feel that it can take its time or wait this out, but our immigrant friends and family members and neighbors don't have the luxury of waiting. We won’t wait either.
On Monday, May 4th, we withdrew $1 million from Citizens Bank.
And it’s just the beginning. Today we are launching and expanding our campaign, “Not With Our Money, Citizens.”
When we first requested a meeting with Mr. Van Saun back on March 23rd, our GBIO members had committed $7 million in deposits at Citizens to pressure the Bank to end its business with these prison corporations. Today, the total of committed deposits has grown to over $18.4 million — and it’s growing every day.
We issue an invitation and a challenge to congregations, to nonprofits, to institutions, to companies, to individuals of conscience, all across the country: If you bank with Citizens Bank, join us.
Commit your deposits. Stand with your neighbors. Use your economic power. Tell the world that we're better than this. You can join us by clicking here. When we organize our money together, we can change systems.
The momentum is building: The De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition, which has organized protests at more than 70 Citizens Bank locations across 12 states, is now joining this organized campaign, urging its participants to use their economic power and pledge their money, too.
We're not launching this campaign because we hate Citizens Bank. We're here because we know Citizens Bank can be better. What it used to be, before it put profits ahead of people.
We're asking Citizens to return to the community-centered practices it embraced two decades ago. To stand for people of all colors and backgrounds. To stand for social responsibility. To stand for justice for all.
Until this happens, we'll hold Citizens Bank accountable — and we will not stop.
Rev. Ray Hammond is the pastor at Bethel AME Church, and a Strategy Team member of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization (GBIO).
