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Statement

BNP Paribas and Fifth Third Commit to Stop Financing Private Prison Industry; The Families Belong Together Corporate Accountability Committee Celebrates Victories

July 15, 2019
Immigration

Lisa Lederer, 202-371-1996

This weekend, BNP Paribas ​announced​ it will stop financing the U.S. private prison industry, becoming the fifth major bank to step away from private prisons; and just today, Fifth Third announced a similar move​ to stop financing private prisons. In response, the Families Belong Together Corporate Accountability Committee released the following statement:

“The millions of people and more than 100 organizations representing the Families Belong Together Corporate Accountability Committee are encouraged by BNP Paribas’s decision to no longer finance the U.S. private prison industry and immigration detention companies. By becoming the first non-US based bank to exit the private prison industry, BNP Paribas is responding to the fact that consumers in the U.S. are concerned about their banks’ role in incarcerating immigrants and communities of color. And by becoming the first regional U.S. bank to step away from private prisons, Fifth Third is setting a precedent for other regional banks to follow.  

“According to a recent report by the Center for Popular Democracy, the Public Accountability Initiative, and In the Public Interest, of the banks financing CoreCivic and GEO Group, US Bank, Barclays, Regions, Citizens, PNC, Pinnacle Bank, First Tennessee Bank, and Synovus Bank are the remaining institutions who have yet to make this commitment. Banks should have no role in financing private prisons, and we call on these institutions to follow suit and recognize the sea change of public support for halting the financing of an industry that profits from the pain and suffering of families.” 

The private prison industry has documented ​histories​ of human rights abuses and detains over 70 percent​ of immigrants in ICE custody and is profiting from mass incarceration and the criminalization of immigration. CoreCivic and GEO Group — the country’s two largest private prison companies —​ depend on debt financing​ from banks to conduct their day-to-day business operations, finance new facilities, and acquire smaller companies.   The Families Belong Together Corporate Accountability Committee, made up of more than 100 organizations, calls on banks to immediately stop their financial support for GEO Group and CoreCivic. The committee has ​signed petitions by the hundreds of thousands, delivered messages to local banks, and taken direct action outside corporate headquarters and bank branches in cities across the country.​ ​Partnering organizations include:  

Action NC

Candide  Group  /  Real  Money  Moves

Center  for  Popular 

Democracy CMSM

CREDO

Daily  Kos

Families  Belong  Together Global  Exchange

Hand  in  Hand:  The  Domestic  Employers  Network

ICCR

In  the  Public  Interest

La  Colectiva  de  Mujeres LittleSis

Make  the  Road  New  York

Make  the  Road  New  Jersey

Mujeres Unidas y Activas

MoveOn

MomsRising  /  MamásConPoder

National  Domestic  Workers  Alliance

Presente.org

Rainforest  Action  Network

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, decrease discrimination against women and moms, and to build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.