The De-ICE Citizens Bank standouts scheduled for Saturday in Cambridge turned into a celebration, after the Providence-based bank announced it was no longer provide credit facilities to private prison companies Core Civic and The Geo Group.
Rafael Moure-Eraso, a Cambridge resident and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, was at the Central Square standout celebrating and holding a “Citizens Retreats” sign.
“It was a very good strategy to illuminate that to do business you have to respect the humanity of people,” said Moure-Eraso. “I guess they realized that if they want the community to see them as good citizens, then they have to do this.”
One of the organizers told Cambridge Day that “When we stand together we have the power to make change in our community,” said Philip Hillman, a member of Cambridge’s St. Paul A.M.E. Church, via email. Hillman is also a leader in the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization’s “Not with our Money, Citizens!” pledge campaign, which has collected over $24 million in pledged withdrawals from the bank with the help of the De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition.
Cambridge City Councillor Marc McGovern was the first local politician to publicly withdraw his campaign funds from the bank over its relationship with the two prison companies. He thanked the advocates who had driven the effort in an email, saying he was glad “Citizens listened to the people and made this decision.”
Despite Citizens’ shift, he said he will keep his campaign account at East Cambridge Savings Bank.
Citizens Bank on Friday confirmed it had ended the credit facilities, citing reductions in the companies’ needs for capital. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has acquired several of their facilities, and the bank said shifting from owners to operators had reduced the companies’ need for financing.
Buying detention facilities allows DHS to bypass local restrictions on immigration detention, a department spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times.
Partial victory
Some activists felt they had achieved only partial victory. Julie Craven, a Cambridge resident who helped start the De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition, said the bank has not severed “all current and future banking relationships” with the two prison companies, a coalition goal. Asked what the coalition’s plans were now, she said “stay tuned.”
Citizens also said it was disappointed with “activists,” claiming they had politicized a business relationship and forced the bank to illegally “debank” the companies. Using political or religious considerations to force banks to end client relationships was prohibited in an August 2025 executive order signed by President Donald J. Trump.
Citizens further noted in 2025 it had helped fund 140 nonprofits that provide services to immigrant communities, and provided $2 billion in community development funding for affordable housing and economic support. “None of these virtues seem to matter to activist groups,” Citizens said.
Craven said the bank could not “play that narrative after months of protests and an increasing amount of divestment.” She said the coalition and affiliated groups “never denied” the bank’s good deeds, but those did not “cancel out the harm [they have done].”
One of the people at the Porter Square standout was a man named Jim, who declined to give his last name. He called the statement from the bank “weak” and said he did not understand why it had taken a stance against “activists.” “[Citizens] want all the goodwill they can get, why even bring that up?”
Several politicians seeking state office have been involved in the protests also commented.
Evan MacKay, who is running to be state representative for the 25th Middlesex district, attended both the Central Square and Porter Square standouts and was mainly celebratory, praising what they called a “beautiful grassroots movement.” MacKay added that “this is the type of people energy and movement energy that it is going to take to confront and abolish ICE.”
They lambasted the Massachusetts Department of Correction’s ongoing agreement with ICE, which authorized state correctional officers to perform federal immigration functions.
“Their statement sounds like nonsense,” said state Rep. Mike Connolly, who joined the coalition last month in Cambridge to protest and pledged to remove his campaign funds from the bank. Attributing Friday’s decision to the “collective pressure” brought on by organizers and local elected officials, he said, “I’m really impressed with and grateful for all of the Cambridge and Somerville residents [who participated].”
Connolly had not yet removed campaign funds at Citizens. He said he would continue following the coalition’s guidance on how to handle the account.
State Rep. Christine Barber, who attended a De-ICE standout in Medford in June, said in an email the decision was “welcome news.” She praised organizers “who refused to let a major bank finance ICE detention.”
She added that “one bank stepping back doesn’t end this,” referencing the recent Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement shooting of Johan Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine.
A CoreCivic spokesperson, Steve Owen, said the company was in the best financial shape it had ever been in, and that it would continue to provide “safe, high quality services” for its “government partners.”
The Geo Group did not respond to a request for comment.
According to a report produced last month by the Human Rights Watch, 52 people have died in ICE custody since Trump took office last January, with 27 dying in privately-owned facilities.
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