- May 19
- 3 min read
Join Indivisible SouthCoast New England at the Citizens Branch on Tarkiln Road at 10 AM June 6. REGISTER FOR UPDATES.
Why We're Taking Action
Citizens Bank is bankrolling the country's two largest prison companies that are earning record profits operating dozens of ICE detention facilities.
While most major banks have cut ties with CoreCivic and The GEO Group, Citizens Bank is deepening its financial support for these companies, which are already holding more than half of the people currently in ICE detention centers across the country.
The bank's capital is supporting a deplorable ICE agenda that aims to fill detention centers with more than 100,000 people by next year.
Even as it publicly touts its commitment to "strengthening our communities," Citizens Bank has played a key role in helping The GEO Group and CoreCivic access more than $2.5 billion in financing, some of it approved earlier this year. This comes as the companies face a mountain of allegations, including forced labor and wrongful deaths due to understaffing and medical neglect at their facilities.
We won't quietly stand by as Citizens continues to finance the private prison & ICE detention companies that are harming our communities. The 2019 exodus of banks from the industry in response to activism should be a reminder to us that our voices matter. Now it's time to use them.
Suggested Signs for This Action
De-ICE Citizens Bank
Cages Aren't Communities
Citizens Bank - Stop Financing ICE Prisons
Citizens Bank + ICE = Human Rights Abuse
ICE Prisons Don't Strengthen Our Communities
Citizens Bank - Cut Ties With ICE Prisons
Community & Safety Guidelines
Solidarity with Workers
We want to be in solidarity with workers including bank branch employees. Treat everyone with respect and do not harass or film employees.
Nonviolent Action
A core principle behind all Coalition events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values. We expect hosts to ensure all participants in your event uphold this commitment.
We recommend all participants review a safety and security resource before your event, such as indivisi.org/safety.
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Silencing Children's Voices
Thousands of children have been held in ICE facilities, including hundreds for more than the court-mandated 20-day limit.
“We forgot what it feels like to be free."
ICE has detained more than 6,200 children in CoreCivic and GEO Group ICE facilities since 2025, many of them for longer than the 20-day limit prescribed by courts — with some children as young as five held for more than nine months.
In legal filings last year, parents said their children were so desperate for toys that they resorted to playing with rocks at CoreCivic's Dilley, Texas facility. “Children were under so much psychological stress that parents said they were hitting their own faces or wetting themselves despite being potty-trained,” the Marshall Project reported.
After the Texas Tribune and ProPublica published drawings from children detained at the Dilley facility earlier this year, parents there reported a clampdown: CoreCivic guards searched rooms and removed the children's art supplies.
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Miscarrying in ICE Detention
She was miscarrying in the middle of the night.
Although Lucia requested immediate medical attention, she was not taken to see medical staff until the middle of the next day.
CoreCivic employees left her bleeding alone for hours.
After hours of waiting alone, Lucia was transported to an emergency room
in shackles — only after losing enough blood to need a transfusion.
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