Citizens Bank Cut Financing for Two of ICE’s Biggest Private Prison Operators
Citizens Bank announced on July 17, 2026 that it will end its credit facilities with GEO Group and CoreCivic, two of the largest private contractors running immigration detention facilities for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The decision came after months of coordinated protests and a wave of institutional withdrawals totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
CoreCivic, which operates more than 40 prisons and has won ICE contracts totaling more than $2 billion, had been a Citizens client since 2011. GEO Group, which runs approximately 50 facilities with more than 60,000 beds nationwide, had worked with Citizens since 2018. Both companies have expanded their federal detention work under the Trump administration’s mass deportation push.
$303.5 million withdrawn from Citizens Bank by municipalities and faith groups in the months before the bank acted
The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization pulled $3 million from Citizens over the two months before the announcement. The governments of Montclair and Jersey City in New Jersey pulled a combined $300 million. The Brown University graduate and undergraduate worker union announced plans to withdraw roughly $500,000 at an April protest outside Citizens’ Providence headquarters.
Citizens Bank framed the move as a routine business decision “based on changed commercial circumstances,” pointing to CoreCivic’s recent sale of two California properties to the federal government and GEO Group’s stated consideration of selling some facilities directly to ICE. The bank did not credit the campaign in its statement.
Organizers with the De-ICE Citizens Bank coalition rejected that framing. The Rev. Dr. Ray Hammond, a pastor at Bethel A.M.E. Church in Boston and a former Citizens board member, said in a statement:
“Our immigrant friends, neighbors and allies deserve to know that community institutions they may have counted on are not directly enabling a system that has brought irreparable harm to neighborhoods across the country.”
Rev. Dr. Ray Hammond, Bethel A.M.E. Church, Boston, July 17, 2026
Citizens is Rhode Island’s largest bank, with roughly 1,000 branches across 14 states and $233.8 billion in assets as of June 30, 2026. The bank’s geographic footprint in the Northeast makes it an institution many immigrant communities interact with directly.
The divestment campaign shows that sustained financial pressure on institutions that profit from detention can shift corporate behavior, even when companies attribute the change to business factors rather than public accountability.
What You Can Do Now
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Find out if your bank finances ICE contractors. Research your bank’s relationships with GEO Group, CoreCivic, or LaSalle Corrections using the GEO Bonds tracker at Worth Rises. If your bank has ties, contact its corporate responsibility office directly and name the specific facility or contract.
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Ask your city or county to pull funds from ICE contractor financiers. Montclair and Jersey City moved $300 million combined. Contact your city council member or county treasurer and ask them to review municipal deposits at banks that hold credit facilities with GEO Group or CoreCivic. Find your local officials at usa.gov/local-governments.
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Call your senators at (202) 224-3121 and ask them to co-sponsor the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, which would end the use of for-profit contractors in ICE detention. Name GEO Group and CoreCivic specifically and note that Citizens Bank just severed ties with both.
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If you attend a faith community or union, bring this to your leadership. The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization and AFT-RIFT Local 6516 both moved money as institutions. Ask your organization’s treasurer what bank you use and whether it finances private prison operators.
Sources
Rhode Island Current: Citizens Bank Ending Contracts With GEO Group and CoreCivic Worth Rises: The Prison Industry. Corporate Financing Tracker Rhode Island Current: Brown Union Plans $500K Withdrawal Over ICE Ties CoreCivic: Annual Report Listing Federal ICE Contract Values GEO Group: Q1 2026 Earnings Call, CEO Remarks on Property Sales