Activists Target Citizens Bank Over Financing of ICE Detention Facilities

SOMA Action, a progressive grassroots organization, is leading a sustained campaign to pressure Citizens Bank into severing its financial relationships with private prison companies that operate ICE detention centers. On May 2, the group held a one-hour protest outside Citizens Bank’s South Orange branch, part of a broader effort by the DE-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition and Boycott Citizens to expose the bank’s role in enabling mass immigrant detention.

According to SOMA Action’s news release, Citizens Bank has provided more than $2.5 billion in financing over the past 12 years to CoreCivic and The Geo Group. Together, these two corporations run nearly 100 private correctional facilities, holding over half of the 70,000 immigrants detained by ICE during the Trump administration's aggressive deportation campaigns.

Cynthia Galeota, co-chair of SOMA Action’s Immigration Committee, condemned Citizens Bank for backing “private, profit-making detention centers that deny New Jerseyans their human rights, limit medical care and due process, and traumatize families with long-standing separation.” She vowed that protests will continue biweekly until the bank ends its financial support for these companies.

Citizens Bank responded by emphasizing its commitment to regulatory compliance and responsible risk management without directly addressing its business with CoreCivic or The Geo Group. The bank highlighted its community investments and volunteer efforts but declined to comment on specific client relationships.

This confrontation highlights the often-overlooked role financial institutions play in sustaining the private prison industry and the broader system of immigrant detention and family separation. Activists argue that banks like Citizens are complicit in human rights abuses by providing the capital that keeps these detention centers operational.

SOMA Action’s ongoing protests aim to force Citizens Bank to align its business practices with its stated commitment to community welfare and human rights. Until then, the spotlight remains on how deeply intertwined financial institutions are with the machinery of immigration enforcement and detention.