The De-ICE Citizens Bank coalition is trying to hit Citizens Bank where it hurts: in the deposit box. The De-ICE coalition has joined with the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization’s “Not with our money, Citizens!” campaign, which has seen nearly $23 million pledged in withdrawals.
That money is slated to be removed from the bank in stages until Citizens ends its financial relationship with private prison companies CoreCivic and The GEO Group. In early May, GBIO withdrew $1 million dollars from the bank, and last week withdrew another $2 million. Overall, the group had previously held $14 million at Citizens, and had a near 20-year relationship with the bank. Members of the De-ICE coalition have pledged $2.4 million in withdrawals, a little more than 10 percent of the campaign’s total. Citizens has over $180 billion in total deposits.
The withdrawal campaign is personal for GBIO members, who saw Citizen’s financing of the two private prison companies as a betrayal. “This was an organization which had done good by us, and all of a sudden we learn that they are contributing to what is happening by financing these two private prison companies,” said Charlie Homer, who is a part of the leadership group for the GBIO campaign. The GBIO has four member churches in Cambridge and a member temple in Somerville.
One of its members is St. Paul A.M.E. Church, where GBIO Strategy Team chair Philip Hillman is a member. “We’ve always appreciated their connection to the community, which is why we don’t understand why they’ve chosen to align themselves with these two groups,” Hillman said.
At Citizens Bank’s annual shareholder meeting in April, several members of GBIO and De-ICE said the bank’s CEO, Bruce Van Saun, told them he would meet with them to discuss their concerns.
But Citizens Bank has declined to schedule a meeting and would not comment on any verbal agreements Van Suan had allegedly made. Rory Sheehan, Head of Enterprise Communications at the bank, said via email it is a “relationship-based bank with a strong record of corporate responsibility.”
“It is not the role of banks to set public policy, our responsibility is to follow the law and apply our standards consistently as we serve all of our clients,” added Sheehan.
That statement drew the ire of state Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven, who called it “cowardly,” saying “you can decide who you do business with and who you don’t do business with, and [Citizens] is choosing to stay with CoreCivic and The GEO Group.”
Politicians join local protests
During a June 6 protest outside of Citizen Bank’s Porter Square branch, Uyterhoeven told Cambridge Day state legislators needed to use “every tool in the organizer toolbox” to stop what she called “the disgusting deportation and detainment machine that our [current] president has exacerbated.”
She pointed to two pieces of legislation making their way through Beacon Hill, the PROTECT Act, which would restrict state and local participation in federal immigration enforcement, and the Data Privacy Act, which would give consumers greater control over their personal data.
To her however, this work also must happen on the ground. “I think it’s our role as [politicians] to use our bully pulpit and our megaphones to support these local efforts.”
Uyterhoeven is one of several local legislators shifting funds out of Citizens. State Rep. Mike Connolly is another. He opened his remarks at the June 6 protest by leading a “not with our money” chant. He also told Cambridge Day he was closing a campaign account at Citizens.
He said Julie Craven, one of his constituents in Cambridge and an organizer for the De-ICE coalition, had brought the issue to his attention. The local protests at Central, Harvard and Porter Square were part of a National Day of Action saw 135 protests across 15 states up from 36 protests during the coalition’s first organized standout in January. Protests also occurred at CoreCivic and GEO Group immigrant detention centers.
Cambridge City Councillor Marc McGovern was the first Cambridge-based elected official to publicly withdraw his funds from Citizens Bank due to their financial support of ICE detention. He did so in April, after 23 years as a customer.
“I don’t think we can stay silent, and Cambridge has always been a place that sets an example and a welcoming community for people,” he said in an interview, adding simply, “it’s important we live up to those values.”
The campaign drew a range of responses from candidates in the crowded 2nd Middlesex Senate race to replace retiring state Sen. Pat Jehlen, which includes Uyterhoeven.
Cambridge Vice Mayor Burhan Azeem said he was in the process of moving money from the bank, though this was difficult “[because] we can’t miss payroll for people, and it’s very hard to do in the middle of a campaign.”
Azeem took the “not with our money” pledge a day after the national day of action.
Other candidates for Jehlen’s seat said they did not have accounts at Citizens and expressed different viewpoints on the issue.
Somerville City Councilor Matt McLaughlin said via email the campaign sounded “like a good idea” but stopped short of saying he’d sign on. “I don’t believe there is a bank in this world that is without sin.”
He argued that many residents don’t have the time, energy or money to “change banks every time one of them does something wrong.” As a candidate, he was more focused on the “dark money” in the race.
Winchester School Committee member Tom Hopcroft attended the Porter Square protest on June 6, and he said via email the effort was a “values-driven response to a genuine moral crisis,” while state Rep. Christine Barber, who was at the Medford Square Citizens branch protest, said “[the bank] should end its financial relationship with CoreCivic and GEO Group now.”
Connolly’s opponent for the 26th Middlesex District House, Neil Miller, supported the campaign and said, “I know the protests have been going on for a few months, so [Connolly withdrawing his funds] may be a little bit delayed, but it’s good that Mike is finally listening to the protestors.”
CoreCivic provided Cambridge Day a statement that said it could not provide specifics about the company’s financial relationships and outlined its Human Rights Policy, as well as its “responsibility to care for each person respectfully and humanely while they receive the legal due process they are entitled to.”
That statement was called “laughable” by Sarah Sherman-Stokes, clinical associate professor of law at Boston University and associate director of the Immigrants’ Rights and Trafficking Clinic.
“CoreCivic is one of the largest private prison companies in the United States, and they operate nearly a dozen for-profit ICE jails,” she said via email. “Whether or not they have a “human rights policy” to trot out for the media is irrelevant and frankly insulting.”
The GEO Group did not respond to requests for comment.
There are no GEO Group or CoreCivic prisons in Massachusetts, but in early March 56-year-old Haitian asylum-seeker and Dorchester resident Emmanuel Damas died while being held at the CoreCivic-operated Central Arizona Florence Correctional Center.
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