Overseas corporations are successively cutting off transactions with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which caused deaths during an immigration raid in Minneapolis in the United States. Backlash against ICE is spreading to corporations that work with the agency.
According to major foreign media on the 2nd, France's leading IT corporations Capgemini announced recently that it would sell its U.S. business unit that has had transactions with ICE. The sale target is its U.S. subsidiary Capgemini Government Solutions (CGS), which has signed multiple contracts with ICE for personal background checks and verification, location tracking, and more.
According to the Washington Post (WP), CGS signed a two-year contract worth up to $365 million (about 528.3 billion won) with ICE and participated as a key vendor in the "Locate and apprehend program," earning the most revenue from ICE among related corporations. The program uses various data, including online information and voter registration data, to find immigrants whose whereabouts are hard to determine.
The decision came after the Paris-based corporate watchdog Multinationals Observatory disclosed details of the contracts between ICE and CGS and after France Finance Minister Roland Lescure pressured the company, saying it should make its activities transparent and reconsider them.
In North America as well, cases of halting transactions with ICE are continuing. The Jim Pattison Group, Canada's largest retail group, scrapped a plan to sell an industrial building in Ashland, Virginia, to ICE. According to a letter the Department of Homeland Security sent to Virginia officials, the facility was to be used to support ICE operations.
This was a swift move after the British Columbia (BC) Green Party in Canada disclosed progress on transactions between the Jim Pattison Group and ICE and signs of a boycott emerged. At the time, the Green Party urged a boycott of the Jim Pattison Group overall, which operates a range of businesses including grocery chains, packaging companies, and car dealerships, if transactions between the two sides continued.
As anti-ICE protests spread rapidly, corporations suspending transactions with ICE are expected to grow in number. Hootsuite, a social media (SNS) corporations based in Canada, has also recently faced consumer backlash demanding it cut ties with ICE.
Democracy Rising, a civic group leading protests condemning Hootsuite, said on social media, "We have made it clear that Canadians will not tolerate far-right authoritarianism or anyone who supports it."
In response, Hootsuite CEO Irina Novoselsky criticized ICE's recent activities as "wrong" in an open letter and called the loss of life "devastating." However, Hootsuite said its position is that it only provides services supporting social media operations to ICE, not tracking or surveillance tools.
U.S. corporations are also joining this trend. According to CNN, Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt posted on social media that a local real estate company said it would "no longer pursue potential purchase or lease discussions with the Department of Homeland Security," adding, "I commend this decision."
Target, a retailer headquartered in Minnesota, is also supporting protests against ICE and monitoring the situation. Target Spokesperson Brian Harper-Tibals said, "We recognize that peaceful protest is an important way for individuals to express their views and make their voices heard." Target also signed an open letter last week with other corporations in Minnesota calling for an immediate de-escalation.
WP said, "It has been rare for corporations cooperating with ICE to publicly criticize the Trump administration's expanded deportation policies," adding, "But following the incident in Minneapolis in which two American protesters were killed, several international corporations are reexamining their business relationships with ICE."