To: Timothy Sloan, Wells Fargo CEO
Wells Fargo, stop financing prison corporations profiting off the pain and separation of families!
We are outraged by Wells Fargo’s role in financing CoreCivic and GEO Group. Private prison companies hold contracts to operate hundreds of prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers across the country that are being used to incarcerate and separate families.
Private prison industry leaders CoreCivic and GEO Group depend on debt financing from banks like yours to conduct their day-to-day business operations, finance new facilities, and acquire smaller companies. An analysis of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings over the past 10 years shows that Wells Fargo has played a leading role in financing these debts. In doing so, Wells Fargo is complicit in and profiting from mass incarceration and the criminalization of immigration.
We demand that you immediately stop financing CoreCivic and GEO Group.
Private prison industry leaders CoreCivic and GEO Group depend on debt financing from banks like yours to conduct their day-to-day business operations, finance new facilities, and acquire smaller companies. An analysis of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings over the past 10 years shows that Wells Fargo has played a leading role in financing these debts. In doing so, Wells Fargo is complicit in and profiting from mass incarceration and the criminalization of immigration.
We demand that you immediately stop financing CoreCivic and GEO Group.
Why is this important?
Let's use the power of our consumer voices to cut off the corporate money behind Trump’s unconscionable immigration policies! Tell Wells Fargo to STOP financing CoreCivic and GEO Group, private prison corporations that are profiting off the pain and separation of families.
Why target Wells Fargo and private prison companies?
Private prison companies are not only making huge profits from the incarceration and detention of immigrants, they are also a huge political force in lobbying for the legislation and policies that criminalize immigrants and communities of color in the U.S. [1][2]
But private prisons are not the only ones making money here. Two of the private prison industry leaders, CoreCivic and GEO Group, depend on debt financing from Wells Fargo and other banks to conduct their day-to-day business operations, finance new facilities, and acquire smaller companies. This is a big deal. An analysis of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings over the past 10 years, shows that Wells Fargo has played a leading role in financing these debts.[3][4]
Follow the money. As consumers, we have the power to stop this!
Wells Fargo needs consumers like you and me in order to keep their business afloat, so our voices are powerful. We can demand that Wells Fargo stop financing private prisons, and thereby stop the construction of new private prisons to house immigrant children and families, stem the political power of private prison lobbyists, and send a warning message to other banks that consumers will not tolerate the use of their deposits to finance the private prison industry.
Imprisoning children with families is still imprisoning children!
Studies have shown that detention, even with families, is traumatic for children and can have long term health and developmental effects. [5]
It’s time for everyone who cares about our democracy and the future direction of our country to use our voices, our votes, and the power of our pocketbooks to fight against human rights abuses in the name of immigration enforcement.
Wells Fargo MUST stop financing this pain! There are alternatives to detention that are not only more compassionate for children and families, but also more fiscally responsible. In FY18, the Department of Homeland Security estimated that it cost on average $319.37 dollars a day, per family member, to incarcerate a family on the border. On the other hand, with the Family Case Management Program, (which the Trump administration terminated in 2017), children and their parents were provided with individualized family service plans, and had a proven 100% success rate ensuring the family attend their hearings, and it cost only $36, per family, per day![6]
We believe that families seeking safety in our country need protection and opportunity. Children deserve to be with their families outside of cages and they deserve to have their rights protected.
Join us today in telling Wells Fargo that they MUST stop the financing of CoreCivic and GEO Group. They MUST stop financing pain for corporate gain!
[1] "For-Profit Family Detention: Meet the Private Prison Corporations Making Millions by Locking Up Refugee Families," grassrootsleadership.org
[2] “How For Profit Prisons Have Become The Biggest Lobby No One Is Talking About,” The Washington Post, Apr. 28, 2015.
[3] "The Banks That Finance Private Prison Companies," In the Public Interest, November 2016.
[4] “Who Is Profiting From Incarcerating Immigrant Families,” Eyes on the Ties, June 21, 2018.
[5] “Separating Kids From Parents Can Cause Psychological Harm. But Experts Say Detaining Them Together Isn't Much Better,” Time Magazine, June 21, 2018.
[6] "The Real Alternatives to Detention," Women’s Refugee Commission, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Immigrant Justice Center, American Immigration Lawyers Association.
Why target Wells Fargo and private prison companies?
Private prison companies are not only making huge profits from the incarceration and detention of immigrants, they are also a huge political force in lobbying for the legislation and policies that criminalize immigrants and communities of color in the U.S. [1][2]
But private prisons are not the only ones making money here. Two of the private prison industry leaders, CoreCivic and GEO Group, depend on debt financing from Wells Fargo and other banks to conduct their day-to-day business operations, finance new facilities, and acquire smaller companies. This is a big deal. An analysis of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings over the past 10 years, shows that Wells Fargo has played a leading role in financing these debts.[3][4]
Follow the money. As consumers, we have the power to stop this!
Wells Fargo needs consumers like you and me in order to keep their business afloat, so our voices are powerful. We can demand that Wells Fargo stop financing private prisons, and thereby stop the construction of new private prisons to house immigrant children and families, stem the political power of private prison lobbyists, and send a warning message to other banks that consumers will not tolerate the use of their deposits to finance the private prison industry.
Imprisoning children with families is still imprisoning children!
Studies have shown that detention, even with families, is traumatic for children and can have long term health and developmental effects. [5]
It’s time for everyone who cares about our democracy and the future direction of our country to use our voices, our votes, and the power of our pocketbooks to fight against human rights abuses in the name of immigration enforcement.
Wells Fargo MUST stop financing this pain! There are alternatives to detention that are not only more compassionate for children and families, but also more fiscally responsible. In FY18, the Department of Homeland Security estimated that it cost on average $319.37 dollars a day, per family member, to incarcerate a family on the border. On the other hand, with the Family Case Management Program, (which the Trump administration terminated in 2017), children and their parents were provided with individualized family service plans, and had a proven 100% success rate ensuring the family attend their hearings, and it cost only $36, per family, per day![6]
We believe that families seeking safety in our country need protection and opportunity. Children deserve to be with their families outside of cages and they deserve to have their rights protected.
Join us today in telling Wells Fargo that they MUST stop the financing of CoreCivic and GEO Group. They MUST stop financing pain for corporate gain!
[1] "For-Profit Family Detention: Meet the Private Prison Corporations Making Millions by Locking Up Refugee Families," grassrootsleadership.org
[2] “How For Profit Prisons Have Become The Biggest Lobby No One Is Talking About,” The Washington Post, Apr. 28, 2015.
[3] "The Banks That Finance Private Prison Companies," In the Public Interest, November 2016.
[4] “Who Is Profiting From Incarcerating Immigrant Families,” Eyes on the Ties, June 21, 2018.
[5] “Separating Kids From Parents Can Cause Psychological Harm. But Experts Say Detaining Them Together Isn't Much Better,” Time Magazine, June 21, 2018.
[6] "The Real Alternatives to Detention," Women’s Refugee Commission, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, National Immigrant Justice Center, American Immigration Lawyers Association.