To the editor:

Readers of the Phoenix may not know that Citizens Bank is providing financing to CoreCivic and the GEO Groups to build and operate ICE detention centers. Yes, the very bank that has, on the one hand, according to a Citizens Bank spokesperson, made $2 billion in equity and loan commitments just last year to finance 8,000 new units of affordable housing is, with the other hand, doing great harm to communities in need. Immigrants living in our area are being harassed, arrested, and detained by ICE and sometimes sent to the same detention facilities Citizens Bank has financed.

That Citizens Bank is providing such financing is in direct contradiction to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), which requires banks to serve their communities, especially low income households and communities of color, by making credit and other services available to those communities. The positive lending that Citizens has engaged in does not offset the harm done by ICE, Core Civic, and the GEO Group. Watch dog groups have reported that these detention centers often have overcrowding and subject detainees to medical neglect, overcrowding, and lack of access to legal assistance.

We are heartened to learn that Brown University Graduate Labor Organization is withdrawing $500,000 from Citizens Bank, and the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization just pledged to withdraw $1 million, in protest of the bank’s investment in detention centers. There will be more protests, withdrawals, and negative publicity until Citizens Bank joins the nine other major financing institutions that have pledged to stop financing private prison corporations.

On Saturday June 6th, a National De-Ice protest was held to demand that Citizens Bank stop financing detention centers. There were events throughout Rhode Island including in Bristol and Middletown where more than 20 people showed up at each location. The protests will continue until Citizens Bank stops financing detention centers.
We all need to act to let Citizens Bank know that we want it to stop funding ICE detention centers.

Lisa Smolski, Stand Up Rhode Island
Nancy Hood, East Bay Citizens for Peace