How this headline may connect to industries in New Jersey. Technical scores are below — click any ? for what a metric means.
“We Closed Our Account”: Advocates Call for Boycott of Citizens Bank for Financing ICE Jails.Media Options We look at a growing boycott against Citizens Bank amid a campaign to pressure the corporation to divest from financing CoreCivic and GEO Group, two of the nation’s largest private operators of ICE jails.An interfaith coalition of dozens of religious groups in Boston said Citizens Bank has failed to adequately address its concern about financing private prisons, so the group has withdrawn $1 million from its estimated $14 million account with the bank and threatened to keep removing funds until its demands are met.Filmmaker Julie Cohen and journalist Paul Barrett, who are married, recently wrote an opinion piece about closing their account at Citizens Bank over its complicity with Delaney Hall and other ICE jails.“Over more than a dozen years, Citizens Bank has arranged for and helped provide some $2 billion in financing for GEO Group and CoreCivic,” says Barrett, a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Businessweek.“Without that money, these corporations literally could not function.” “The idea is to basically use our collective economic power to speak out about those who are aiding and abetting” the immigrant detention system in the United States, adds Cohen.“A lot of what’s going on in these ICE detention facilities is not lawful because … immigrant neighbors, most of whom have not committed any crime beyond immigration violations, are being held there without due process.” Transcript AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org.I’m Amy Goodman.We look now at a growing boycott against Citizens Bank amidst a campaign to pressure the corporation to divest from financing CoreCivic and GEO Group, two of the nation’s largest private operators of ICE jails.An interfaith coalition of dozens of religious groups in Boston said Citizens Bank has failed to adequately address its concern about financing private prisons, so the group is now withdrawing a million dollars from its estimated $14 million account with the bank.The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization plans to continue pulling out a million at a time, until the bank addresses its concerns.This is senior minister of Old South Church in Boston, Bishop John Edgerton, explaining the decision on MS NOW.JOHN EDGERTON: We pulled a million dollars out today.We transferred it to another bank, because we want Citizens to stop doing this dirty business.Citizens is one of the only banks in the country that banks with and provides financing for CoreCivic and GEO Group, two of the most notorious private prison companies in this country.This year, Emmanuel Damas, who is a neighbor, a Boston resident, a 56-year-old man, he died in CoreCivic detention in Arizona from a toothache.He had a toothache.He complained about it.They didn’t give him proper care.His toothache became an infection, his infection became sepsis, and he died.And these are the practices that CoreCivic is notorious for and GEO Group is notorious for.And they will not be abusing our neighbors, not with our money.AMY GOODMAN: That’s Reverend John Edgerton, speaking to Rachel Maddow.A Citizens Bank spokesperson responded to Democracy Now!in a statement that said, quote, “Citizens is deeply committed to the communities we serve — investing $2 billion in 2025 to help build or preserve more than 8,000 affordable housing units, contributing over 265,000 volunteer hours, and partnering with nonprofits across our footprint.People have strong and often differing views on issues like immigration.It’s an important public policy debate — but it’s not the role of banks to set policy.Our role is to follow the law and apply our standards consistently as we serve all of our clients,” Citizens Bank said to Democracy Now!For more, we’re joined by two guests here in New York.Julie Cohen is an Oscar-nominated director who’s made many films, including RBG, about the Supreme Court justice, Every Body, My Name is Pauli Murray.She and her husband, Paul Barrett, who is a former reporter with The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Businessweek, wrote an op-ed this weekend for NJ.com about their decision to close their accounts at Citizens Bank over the bank’s complicity with Delaney Hall and other ICE jails.We welcome you both to Democracy Now!Thank you so much for being with us.Julie, let’s start with you.Talk about what this Citizens Bank campaign is all about, and about your personal decision.JULIE COHEN: Yeah.The campaign to protest Citizens Bank is about their complicity.They finance both GEO Group, which operates Delaney Hall and other ICE detention, and CoreCivic, which operates the Dilley center in Texas, which you may remember is where Liam Ramos was held, and many other children are still being held.And the idea is to basically use our collective economic power to speak out about those who are kind of aiding and abetting the system.I’m taken aback hearing the statement that Citizens Bank just gave you.I’m hearing it for the first time just now.But there was a phrase in there where he said they’re committed to upholding the law.Well, some of what’s going on — a lot of what’s going on in these ICE detention facilities is not lawful, because people are being detained there, immigrant neighbors, most of whom have not committed any crime beyond immigration violations, are being held there without due process.So, that’s unconstitutional, so they’re not upholding the law if they’re helping finance these facilities.AMY GOODMAN: And explain.We’re talking about hunger and labor, a hunger and a labor strike inside the jail.The labor part of it isn’t talked about as much.While DHS denies this is going on, interestingly, the border czar, Tom Homan, has talked about force-feeding, though he has denied that the hunger strike is happening.JULIE COHEN: Yeah, he’s done all kinds of things.He’s denied the hunger strike is happening.He’s saying that they might have to have to force-feed people, which you obviously wouldn’t have to do if there was no hunger strike.And he has also deeply inaccurately claimed that the reason — this just happened, I think, on Fox yesterday — he was saying the reason that the hunger strikers are striking is because they feel that they have the right to the ethnic food of their home countries — made up out of whole cloth.The issue is their unconstitutional incarceration.They also have complained about conditions, including putrid water, not enough food, and worms in their food.Nobody’s talking about wanting to get their own specialized ethnic food.That’s just crap.AMY GOODMAN: Paul Barrett, you’re a former reporter with The Wall Street Journal and with Businessweek.If you can talk about CoreCivic and GEO, these corporations, and Citizens Bank’s relationship with them?PAUL BARRETT: Sure.These are major corporations that require continued financing from banks and other financial institutions in order to operate.Over more than a dozen years, Citizens Bank has arranged for and helped provide some $2 billion in financing for GEO Group and CoreCivic.Without that money, these corporations literally could not function.In 2019, other major banks and financial institutions pulled back from precisely this type of financing, not because of what’s going on in Delaney Hall.Delaney Hall wasn’t open at that time.They pulled back because they could see that association with the private prison industry was hurting their brand reputation.And they said, “No more.We’re out of this business.” Banks do care about what consumers think about their business.Citizens just decided to stay in, to keep taking the profits from this financing, and, as a result, now finds itself enmeshed in this, you know, obscene policy of the Trump administration.And we’re just calling for them to step back.They can just stop doing it.It’s not that complicated.AMY GOODMAN: Last year, during a quarterly earnings call for the private prison company GEO Group, the CEO, David Donahue, claim