Dozens of protestors weathered wind chills below 0° F to join the De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition standouts outside of the Central, Harvard and Porter Square branches of Citizens Bank in Cambridge on Saturday.
The protests, which lasted 90 minutes, were part of a series of standouts across the Northeast. Several chapters of the Indivisible Project and independent progressive groups engaged in action at nearly 40 Citizens Bank locations from New Hampshire to Washington, D.C. The goal was to raise awareness of the financial connections between Citizens Bank and the prison companies CoreCivic and The Geo Group, which the groups say are profiting from actions against immigrants to the United States.
Citizens Bank, based in Providence, R.I., and branch managers of bank locations where standouts took place did not respond to requests for comment.
Laura McMurray, point person of the protest at the Central Square branch, emphasized that the goal of the standouts was to inform. “I have friends that have accounts with Citizens, and they never heard of this [connection], they don’t believe it at first.”
She added, “we’re not here to badger anyone or tell them what to do – just hand them the information.”
Protestors brought custom-made signs and distributed informational leaflets. Drivers were encouraged to honk in support; at the Harvard and Porter Square locations, the demonstrations were met with a cacophony of car horns.
At the Harvard Square location, one protestor symbolically closed his account with the bank, walking in while members of the BVOCAL protest chorus sang. The group also sang at Porter Square. A protester from Belmont told Cambridge Day while this was occurring that he also planned on closing out his account, though he would have to do this at his home branch.
Many residents, and some from further afield, also came to support the action. Genevieve, Cambridge resident and pediatrician who did not give her last name, said she participated because “I think what is happening is incredibly inhumane and against everything our constitution stands for.” She added that as a parent and a pediatrician, “I am seeing the effect it has on kids to see that kind of violence.”
Forming the Coalition
The De-ICE Coalition started in early December as an organic, grassroots effort borne out of a similar protest coalition formed against Avelo Airlines, which in early January forced the company to end its roughly $150 million contract providing charter flights for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Julie Craven, one of the organizers, told Cambridge Day that the coalition grew by word-of-mouth. “It was one of those: everyone told two friends and within a week we had a Zoom meeting of maybe 25 people.”
Craven is former principal of Rindge Avenue Upper School and member of the Protect Our Democracy Working Group, the combined Cambridge chapter of Indivisible and Progressive Mass, and a volunteer with the Boston Immigration Justice Accompaniment Network (BIJAN).
“We came up with a strategy. We thought we could crawl, walk, run – so we figured a stand-out was the best way [to start],” said Craven. “We’re going to have meetings every two weeks to plan our ‘walk’ and ‘run’ actions.”
Peyton Fleming, a spokesperson for the protest coalition, said, “This really came together in a matter of two or three weeks, and that’s why we think there will be bigger protests, and more protests, after the ones on Saturday.”
Protest builds on research
To back their protest with robust research into the purported ties, the coalition has worked with the creator of Boycott Citizens, a website that details the continuously expanding relationships between Citizens Bank and the two private prison giants.
Ravneet Grewal has helped the coalition research financial connections between Citizens and the two private prison institutions. Of particular concern are Citizens’ role as an administrative agent on loan deals and setting up a revolving line of credit for GEO Group in 2024 and 2025. Grewal noted that Citizens Bank does not currently act as administrative agent for CoreCivic but did in the past, including underwriting $200 million in bonds in 2024. More on the financial ties is on the Boycott Citizens website.
Grewal also said the coalition sees Citizens as engaged in blatant hypocrisy, since “they really like to advertise their social responsibility,” said Grewal. On its website, Citizens Bank promotes a community-focused and socially responsible platform. Its Champions in Action Program supports nonprofit organizations that “address the social challenges facing our communities.”
Ultimately, Grewal said the coalition was focused on exposing economic hypocrisy and private infringement into public institutions, not opposing public safety. “The basis of detention centers and prisons are public safety, and public safety is a public good, but when it becomes something that is done for profit, now you have an incentive for profit.”
As Craven put it, “our ultimate goal is to get Citizens to sever ties with CoreCivic and The Geo Group and to make a public statement. We [also] have a secondary goal, to show corporations in general that people are watching.”
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