Connecticut activists are planning an anti-Immigrations and Customs Enforcement protest outside a bank in Manchester on Saturday, which they say is financially supporting detention centers.
The activists, under the banner of the De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition, will stage a rally on Saturday morning outside the Citizens Bank branch in Manchester, one of several dozen such protests planned across the Northeast. The organizers are calling for the bank to end its financial support for CoreCivic and The GEO Group, two of the largest private prison firms in the United States, both of which have major contracts with ICE.
“Customers of Citizens Bank may not know that when they deposit money into their accounts, they are indirectly supporting ICE and its abusive behavior,” Laura Cassenti of MA/CT Stop Avelo said in a release. “Citizens Bank is profiting from abuse. No company should profit from pain.”
Protesters march in the street during the “Ice Out!” protest along the New Haven Green in New Haven, Conn., Friday, January 30, 2026. “Ice Out!” is part of the National Shutdown day of protest. (Dave Zajac/Hearst Connecticut Media)
Citizens Bank, which is based in Providence, R.I., declined to comment. The protest follows a smaller round of demonstrations against Citizens Bank that activists organized in January.
The GEO Group runs several ICE detention centers, including two facilities in Louisiana that housed 182 people arrested by ICE in Connecticut during the first half of 2025, according to CT Insider reporting. The company currently has $689 million worth of contracts with ICE.
GEO Group’s Alexandria Staging Facility in Alexandra, La., which hosted 125 detainees from Connecticut, was the subject of an investigation by The Guardian last year, which found what it described as a pattern of overcrowding and neglect. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, denied those allegations.
CoreCivic, which runs detention centers that have come under fire for poor care and the spread of diseases like measles, including a notorious facility in Dilley, Texas, has more than $2.2 billion worth of contracts with ICE.
Pepper spray is dispersed towards protesters outside the South Texas Family Residential Center detention facility where Liam Ramos and his father are being detained in Dilley, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2026. (Eric Gay/AP)
According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings and GEO Group statements, the company currently has a $550 million line of credit with Citizens Bank. SEC filings also show that CoreCivic borrowed $500 million from the bank in 2024.
“Opposition to Citizens Bank for its deplorable financial support to prison companies and the ICE agenda is getting bigger and louder by the day,” said Peyton Fleming, a spokesperson for the protesters, said in the release. “Citizens Bank continues to bankroll companies that are cashing in on the explosion of immigrant arrests and incarcerations across the country.”
In recent years, a number of prominent banks – including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, SunTrust and Barclays – have cut ties with either GEO Group or CoreCivic in an effort to divest from the private prison industry.
This article originally published at Protests against Citizens Bank for ICE detention facility financing planned in Connecticut Saturday.