Outside 39 Church St. Friday. Andrew Rice and (below) Johnny Rivera. After 31 years as a depositor at Citizens Bank, local peace activist Joan Cavanagh closed out her account on Thursday — before co-leading a protest on Friday demanding that the financial institution sever ties with pri vate prison companies that contract with federal immigration enforcement. Cavanagh was one of the local organizers of Friday morning’s “De-ICE” protest outside of the Citizens Bank branch at 39 Church St. Roughly two dozen protesters stood on the sidewalk on the east and west sides of the Church Street-Crown Street intersection and waved signs reading “Citizens Bank Stop Financing ICE Prisons” and sang (to the tune of “”When the Saints Go Marching In”), “We’re going to love and protect our neighbors, abolish ICE right now, right now.” Passing cars honked in support as Democratic congressional challenger Andrew Rice and West Hartford De-ICE organizer Johnny Rivera carried their protest signs and megaphones into the street every time the traffic light turned red. Cavanagh, Rice, and Rivera said they were all there Friday as part of a nationwide day of action calling on Citizens Bank to cut its financial ties with two of the country’s largest private-prison companies, the GEO Group and CoreCivic. According to a flyer handed out at the event by Cavanagh, those two companies are “the leading operators of for-profit ICE detention centers” and their facilities “hold more than half of the 60,000 people currently detained by ICE.” Cavanagh praised the employees at the 39 Church St. bank branch as helpful and kind — but said she could no longer remain a customer at Citizens given its financial connections to ICE’s “concentration camps.” “This is unacceptable,” she said about Citizens’ ongoing financing of GEO Group and CoreCivic. She called for the bank to “completely sever ties” with the two companies. Reached for comment by email Friday, Citizens Bank Head of Enterprise Communication Rory Sheehan said, “Citizens is a relationship-based bank with a strong record of corporate responsibility. We are proud of our commitment to clients, customers, and communities across the country and across industries. It is not the role of banks to set public policy. Our responsibility is to follow the law and apply our standards consistently as we serve all of our clients.” Rivera said he traveled from West Hartford down to New Haven on Friday to show solidarity with fellow anti-ICE protesters looking to put pressure on Citizens Bank. “I think targeted action is really important to take down pillars upholding fascism,” he said. Rivera, 42, said he recently attended rallies outside Delaney Hall, an ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey where protesters have clashed with armed federal agents amid a reported hunger strike among detainees who have experienced “abuse” and “medical neglect.” It was “pretty intense,” Rivera said about the Delaney Hall protest. Rice, who is looking to petition his way onto the Aug. 11 Democratic primary ballot in his challenge to U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, wore a “FCK ICE” shirt and carried a sign reading, “Citizens Bank Stop funding ICE Concentration Camps.” “What ICE is doing is unacceptable,” Rice said. The post Anti-ICE Protest Targets Citizens Bank appeared first on New Haven Independent. ...read more read less