Citizens Bank Bankrolls ICE Detention Empire While Competitors Bail Out

The Only Bank Still Betting on Cages

While major financial institutions have fled the private prison industry amid public pressure, Citizens Bank has doubled down. The Rhode Island-based bank remains the sole major lender to CoreCivic and GEO Group, the two largest private prison operators in the country, which together run dozens of Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities.

Through a combination of direct loans, bond underwriting, and credit lines, Citizens has helped these companies access more than $2.5 billion in financing over the past twelve years. Some of that money was approved this year, even as reports of deaths in custody, family separations, and systemic abuse in ICE detention centers have mounted.

The financing arrangement is particularly striking given the industry exodus. JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and other major banks have all cut ties with private prison companies in recent years following sustained pressure from activists and shareholders. Citizens Bank now stands virtually alone in its willingness to bankroll an industry that profits from human detention.

Communities, Not Cages

Indivisible chapters across New York's Capital Region are mobilizing to confront Citizens about the contradiction between its public messaging and its business practices. The bank's website prominently features commitments to "fostering strong communities" and "social responsibility." Activists argue that financing mass detention is the exact opposite of those values.

Protests are planned at Citizens Bank branches throughout Albany, Rensselaer, and Schenectady counties. The coordinated action targets locations from Colonie to East Greenbush, aiming to make the bank's role in the detention system visible to everyday customers who may not know where their deposits are going.

"We need to hold the bank accountable," organizers wrote in their call to action, which emphasizes nonviolent protest and de-escalation.

The Business of Detention

CoreCivic and GEO Group operate under federal contracts with ICE, running facilities that have been the subject of numerous investigations and lawsuits. Reports from these detention centers have documented inadequate medical care, sexual abuse, retaliation against people who file complaints, and deaths that could have been prevented with proper oversight.

The private prison model creates a perverse incentive: companies profit more when more people are detained for longer periods. Both CoreCivic and GEO Group have lobbied extensively for policies that expand immigration detention, even as their facilities face accusations of civil rights violations.

Citizens Bank's financing makes that business model possible. Without access to capital markets, private prison companies cannot expand their operations or maintain their existing facilities. By continuing to lend when other banks have stopped, Citizens has become the financial lifeline for an industry built on human suffering.

Where the Money Flows

The $2.5 billion in financing is not ancient history. Citizens approved new funding this year, demonstrating an ongoing commitment to the private detention industry even as public awareness of conditions inside ICE facilities has grown.

That money flows directly into the infrastructure of mass detention: new facilities, expanded bed capacity, and the operational costs of running a for-profit cage system. Every dollar Citizens lends is a dollar that could instead go to community investment, small business loans, or literally anything other than profiting from the separation of families and the detention of asylum seekers.

Taking It to the Branches

The protests represent a direct challenge to Citizens Bank's ability to maintain its public image while quietly financing detention. By showing up at branch locations where the bank interacts with everyday customers, activists aim to force a conversation the bank would prefer to avoid.

Indivisible has identified nine branch locations for coordinated action, spreading the protests across multiple counties to maximize visibility. The strategy is designed to make it impossible for Citizens to ignore the issue or dismiss it as a fringe concern.

The question facing Citizens Bank is simple: will it continue to be the financial backbone of private immigration detention, or will it follow its competitors and divest from an industry that treats human beings as profit centers?

For now, Citizens stands alone in its willingness to bankroll cages. Activists are betting that public pressure can change that calculation.