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Most Americans believe US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) tactics are “too tough” and are making communities “less safe.” But how can they voice their concerns with ICE and the Trump administration?
One action they can take is to go after the companies that are supporting and abetting the government’s aggressive immigration crackdown.
One of these companies is right in our backyard – Citizens Bank, which has a bank branch at 450 Boston Post Road in Sudbury.
This Saturday, Jan. 24, dozens of peaceful standouts will be held across the Northeast to protest Citizens Bank’s financial support to companies building and operating ICE immigration detention facilities across the country.
More than 40 protests will be held outside Citizens Bank branches in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington DC. A dozen will be held in Massachusetts, including bank locations in Sudbury, Acton, Maynard and Lexington. The Sudbury protest will be from 11 am to noon at 450 Boston Post Road and we encourage folks to attend. Dress warmly! (This interactive map shows all protest locations and times).
The protests are being organized by the De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition, which is comprised of dozens of local groups affiliated with the Indivisible movement (see indivisible.org and indivisible-ma.org) and the Rhode Island Resistance Coalition.
Despite its public commitment to community-centered institutions and social responsibility, Citizens Bank continues to be a major lender to the country’s two largest private prison companies, CoreCivic and The GEO Group, which build and operate immigration detention centers for ICE. The financial ties with CoreCivic – through loans, bond offerings and credit lines – go back a dozen years. Its ties with The GEO Group, ICE’s biggest private contractor, are more recent.
While JPMorgan, Barclays and a half-dozen other major banks ended their relationships with the private prison industry in 2019, Providence-based Citizens has strengthened its ties to the industry.
That’s especially bad news right now.
We are seeing an explosion in mass detentions in this country and it’s only just beginning. More than 58,000 people were being held in ICE detention centers as of Sept 2025, a 50 percent jump from the prior year. ICE is shooting to nearly double that number this year, to more than 100,000 beds.
Both prison companies are cashing in by reopening closed detention centers and building new ones in states around the country. Their profits are also soaring.
“Our business is perfectly aligned with the demands of this moment,” Core Civic CEO Damon Hininger told investors last August. “We are in an unprecedented environment with rapid increases in federal detention populations nationwide.”
If you’re skeptical that small grassroots protests against one of the nation’s largest banks can achieve change, think again.
We’ve already seen major companies supporting and profiting from President Trump’s policies get punished for it.
When Disney and its ABC affiliate suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s show last fall over his remarks about Charlie Kirk’s fatal shooting, viewers quickly responded. Disney’s streaming apps lost more than one million paid subscribers in a matter of days. The show was quickly restored – a major victory for free speech.
When Avelo Airlines, a budget commercial airline signed a big contract to handle deportation flights for ICE, they met intense opposition from customers, activists and politicians. After months of protests at airports nationwide, including the Bradley and New Haven airports in Connecticut, Avelo backed down. Last month the airline announced it was getting out of the deportation business.
Now we want to hold Citizens Bank accountable for its deplorable business practices, just as we did with Avelo.
Please join us this Saturday if you’re unhappy with the ICE agenda and companies that are enabling it.
Ellen Dussourd is a resident of Sudbury