Keep the pressure on Citizens Bank to get out of the ICE business!
Citizens TALKS a lot about valuing diversity and building strong communities. But they KEEP QUIET about how, behind the scenes, they are financing private prison companies to lock up ICE detainees under inhumane conditions.
We’ll stand out on the public sidewalk with signs and informational leaflets. We will urge Citizens Bank customers to contact local branch managers and the bank leadership in Providence, RI with this message: because of Citizens’ investments in ICE, I may close my account, or I have already done so.
We will urge non-customers to express their anger to bank leadership, and to also spread the word about the Citizens – ICE connection.
Please bring only signs specific to this Citizens Bank action, such as:
Citizens Bank: Stop Financing ICE Prisons! // ICE Cages Aren’t “Communities” // “Strengthen Our Communities”? Not with ICE Prisons! // Citizens Bank: Cut Ties With ICE.
We’ll have a few extra signs. Bring US flags too!
Dress for the weather. We will cancel only in case of extreme weather. Sign Up to receive event reminder and notice of any cancellation.
BACKGROUND.
Citizens Bank publicly presents itself as a community-centered institution committed to social responsibility. Yet the Bank continues to maintain key financial relationships with CoreCivic and The GEO Group, two notorious, for-profit, prison corporations that build and operate immigration detention facilities for ICE, provide transportation services to ICE, and operate prisons for mass incarceration.
For more details about Citizens Bank’s relationship to the private prison system, go to boycottcitizens.org
The action at Porter Square is held by Cambridge members of the De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition comprising about 60 progressive organizations from a dozen states in the eastern US (de-icecitizensbank.org/).
The Cambridge group can be reached directly at ProtectingOurDemocracy76@gmail.com
THE ASK. The Coalition calls upon Citizens Bank to live up to its stated values by publicly committing to end its financial relationships with private prison and detention contractors. These actions are intended to send a clear message: corporations and financial institutions that enable harmful immigration and detention policies must be held accountable by the communities they claim to serve.
A core principle behind all of these 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 and to act lawfully at these events. Weapons of any kind, including those legally permitted, should not be brought to events. Please do not block business entrances or traffic.