Protestors condemn Citizens Bank over private prison investments

Dedicated activists rallied outside a Citizens Bank branch on West 235th Street, urging the financial institution to divest from for-profit prison operators that run dozens of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, detention centers.

Citizens Financial Group continues to finance two private correctional firms, including the GEO Group, which operates the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Pennsylvania. The facility, one of the largest ICE detention centers in the nation, is where John F. Kennedy Campus student Dylan Lopez Contreras has been detained for more than six months.

Contreras was arrested in May of last year after appearing for a mandatory immigration hearing at 26 Federal Plaza. In September, a New Jersey immigration judge denied his asylum claim and ordered his deportation. His attorneys have since filed an appeal, and he remains in ICE custody as his case proceeds.

“People know the story of Dylan Contreras, four hours away from his family,” said Lois Harr, who led the protest. “Then we came to find out how the GEO Group — and also another group called CoreCivic — they have contracts with ICE, but they also need additional funding because they operate for-profit prisons.”

Contreras fled Venezuela and entered the United States in April 2024 using the CBP One app, a Biden-era humanitarian program intended to provide a lawful pathway for migrants from unstable countries. Subsequent shifts in federal policy complicated his asylum case, including a move by President Trump to revoke legal status for individuals who entered the country using the program.

Riverdale residents pushing for divestment say the system holding Contreras is part of a much larger detention framework, with the vast majority of people in ICE custody held in facilities run by for-profit companies. ICE contracts with private corporations to operate detention centers, build new facilities and transport people in custody.

Contreras’ detention, Harr said, gave urgency to what might otherwise feel like an abstract financial issue.

Holding signs and distributing flyers in below-freezing temperatures, Harr and several others urged customers and passersby to pressure Citizens to divest.

“This is about letting people know that their everyday choices matter,” Harr said. “If you bank here, you’re connected to what happens inside these detention centers, whether you realize it or not.”

Major banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, which were once heavily involved in financing for-profit prisons, pledged to stop doing so in past years, but Citizens has not followed suit.

“So many other banks have done it,” one organizer added. “It’s not like we’re asking them to do something impossible. It can be done.”

Reports published by Citizens Financial Group indicate the bank provided more than $1 billion in credit to the GEO Group in 2024 and previously served as a lender on a $1 billion credit facility for CoreCivic.

Last year, both companies reported increased revenues as immigration detention expanded nationwide. CoreCivic reported total revenue of $538.2 million during the company’s second quarter, an increase of nearly 10 percent compared with the same period in 2024. The GEO Group, ICE’s largest contractor, reported second-quarter revenue of $636.2 million, a 5 percent increase year over year.

Both companies have also moved to expand detention capacity. Since January of last year, the GEO Group has reactivated four ICE detention facilities with a combined 6,600 beds — a move the company has said is expected to generate more than $240 million annually.

Rallygoer Emily Shapiro said Contreras’ case forced her to examine her own role as a consumer.

“I think that our consumer power is one of the few powers we have left,” Shapiro said. “Congress is not doing its checking. The Supreme Court is clearly not. What we’re trying to show people is that this is not just the government doing things. The private sector also has to financially support a lot of it.”

Moshannon Valley has been the subject of particular concern. The facility has faced allegations of physical and psychological abuse, inadequate medical care and poor living conditions. Scrutiny intensified following the death of Chaofeng Ge, a Chinese national who died while detained at the facility last year.

“We have to see what Dylan’s fate is,” Shapiro said. “But in either case, there are tens of thousands of other Dylans out there. And that’s why we don’t just stop.”

Harr described the action as a response to what she views as a broader human rights crisis.

“I believe that we’re in a moment of complete abuse of human rights by ICE, and we have to stand up wherever we can.”