Tampa, FL: Three PNC Bank Branches Disrupted as Bank Continues to Profit from Immigrant Detention

Report from Tampa, Florida on continued actions in support of divestment from ICE by large banks.

In the wake of Pedro Arriago-Santoya’s death while imprisoned in Stewart Detention Center, and following a demonstration at a PNC branch last week, abolitionists disrupted three PNC Bank locations in Tampa, Florida early July 26th demanding the institution divest from CoreCivic. Activists addressed the bank’s employees and customers, confronting PNC with its complicity in the kidnapping, abuse, and murder of human beings for profit while hundreds of flyers were scattered that detailed PNC’s crimes and demanding divestment. Management at all three locations responded with threats of arrest and indifference to the human rights violations that comprise their salaries.

Following a wave of divestment of other financial institutions from private prisons weeks ago, PNC still refuses to cut ties with CoreCivic, continuing to profit from inhumane facilities such as Stewart that cage people for profit. Migrants at Stewart are forced to work in order to afford hygiene necessities while basic medical and psychiatric care are unavailable. Conditions at Stewart are so desperate that it has been described by its own staff as a “ticking time bomb,” and yet CoreCivic and ICE continue to detain people there and PNC continues to bankroll them.

As long as CoreCivic has creditors, children are going to continue being locked in cages and people are going to continue to die in their custody. It’s only a matter of time until PNC caves to public backlash like the other Wall Street banks and ceases funding private prisons, so let’s keep the pressure on and let them know that any collaboration with ICE is unacceptable and will be met with resistance.