Success: Private Immigrant Prisons Defunded

Target: Tim Sloan, CEO of Wells Fargo and Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase

Goal: Praise the big banks who withdrew their funding from private immigrant detention centers.

A years-long effort to dismantle the private prison industry came to a head after multiple banks announced plans to withdraw their funding from private immigrant detention centers. This is a surprising success for the anti-private prison movement and migrant rights activists. Praise these lenders for their bold decision.

“There were so many points where we were like, let’s just stop, we’re getting nowhere. But the pressure worked,” stated Ana Maria Archila of the Center for Popular Democracy. Since the rise of immigrant detention centers under the Trump administration, migrant rights activists, armed with petitions like this one, have been advocating nonstop to protect immigrants from the injustices that are enacted behind those walls. Two of the top funders of private prisons, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, became their targets. JPMorgan Chase once provided at least $254 million in funding to private prison titans, CoreCivic and Geo Group. Now, these big banks are planning to cut ties with them and cease their funding of immigrant detention centers.

This is just one battle of many against private prisons, but it is an important one. Sign below to thank these lenders for doing their part in dismantling this harmful and discriminatory industry.

PETITION LETTER:

Dear CEOs Sloan and Dimon,

Your recently announced decisions to cut ties with CoreCivic and Geo Group will go down as one of the major successes in the fight against private prisons. These groups support and help facilitate the abuse and the dismantling of innocent migrant families. We want to thank you for taking a step to end this cruelty.

Families ripped apart. Children neglected and abused. These are just some of the accusations brought against the immigrant detention centers at the Mexican border. These privately funded institutions are a scourge on American history and a massive human rights violation. Now, thanks to your funding withdrawal, they will weaken and become much easier for human rights activists to defeat.

You’ve set an important example for other banks still associated with private prison funding and raised the bar in your industry. Thank you for standing up for human rights.

Sincerely,

[Your Name Here]

Photo Credit: TayebMEZAHDIA