BlackRock and ICE, a Recipe for Human Suffering

During a day of action, activists from the August 8 National Coalition” protested outside the downtown offices of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and in several cities across the country. They called on the company to divest from its ownership shares in the for-profit prison industry along with its other relationships with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Speakers at the protest called for “Solidarity with Immigrants, Refugees, Detainees & Activists” and for a general strike by organized labor unions “…to shut down ICE and the concentration camps,” saying that “unions and workers have the power to stop these attacks by ICE gestapo thugs and other government police forces, a deadly threat to all workers and people of the United States.”

BlackRock has been the focus of numerous protests for several years due to its continued role as a major investor in funding Trump’s anti-immigrant ICE crackdown by profiting from their portfolio of companies engaged in surveillance, identification, detention, and deportation of those rounded up.

Among BlackRock’s investments are those in the private prison companies CoreCivic ($480 million) and The GEO Group ($571 million) who operate immigration detention facilities for ICE. The prisons’ operations have been characterized as substandard in neglecting the medical needs of detainees along with accusations of abuse, torture and unacceptable living conditions including crowding and small portions of poor quality and insufficiently prepared processed food. Since Trump returned to office more than a year ago, fifty-three detainees have died in custody at ICE detention facilities.

The coalition also demands that BlackRock divest from its $22.15 billion stake in Palantir and other spying tech company investments that provide AI services used to identify, track, and target refugees and immigrants, along with their $10.2 billion stake in defense contractor General Dynamics for its profiteering through providing “social services” for unaccompanied migrant children held in custody at U.S. government detention camps.

Saying that “No Human is Illegal!” and that “Migration is a Human Right,” protesters further demanded that all detained immigrants be freed, called for the closing of all detention facilities, and that ICE be abolished. This, along with ending “attacks on TPS and [to] Welcome All Refugees & Asylum Seekers with Permanent Status!”

Included in their demands, too, are the dropping of all charges for the 22 defendants in the November 2025 “disturbance” at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, along with all charges against 15 members and associates of the Minneapolis-based Direct Action Minnesota (DAMN) charged with various federal crimes. The charges filed on June 17th allege that the DAMN defendants, which included members of Antifa groups, “…engaged in an unrelenting campaign of harassment and violence targeting federal and local law enforcement,” according to then acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

The pressure campaign targeting BlackRock’s Homeland Security and ICE/DHS related assets will continue according to activists until the $15.3 trillion company’s institutional and individual investors force them to adopt a more socially responsible investment approach by quitting their profiting from human suffering.

On one positive note, after six months of nationwide protests and demands by the “De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition,” the New England-headquartered bank has ended its financial relationship with CoreCivic and The GEO Group. The pressure campaign along with the bank’s loss of an estimated $377 million in investments and deposits that have been withdrawn by various public and private entities, including $25 million withdrawn by individuals, has spoken the only language that bankers clearly understand.

Report and photos by Phil Pasquini

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