Commentary: Las Cruces – Tuesday, May 2nd, Faith leaders and conservationists will join a national day of action to publicly denounce Wells Fargo’s exploitative practices. Locally, community members will meet in front of Wells Fargo to engage in a communal divesting of Wells Fargo, and call on others in the community and public institutions to also divest.
This action is part of the “Week of Prophetic Resistance,” a week of public actions aimed to counter the Trump Administration’s narrative that immigrants are dangerous and a threat to our community. The week seeks to also educate the community on the corporations and entities that profit off the detention and deportation of immigrants.
Wells Fargo claims to be an immigrant friendly banking facility but invests in private prison corporations that lobby for and profit from immigration enforcement and detention, like GEO Group and Core Civic. “I am closing my account with Wells Fargo because I feel tricked and deceived by the bank. The bank claims to be immigrant friendly but then makes huge amount of profit of the detention and deportation of my family and community,” Brenda, a dreamer from Doña Ana County.
On May 2nd, immigrants, business owners, and community members will publicly divest themselves from Wells Fargo while also calling on others in our community to close their accounts with Wells Fargo. Community members will also be looking towards the City of Las Cruces and encourage them to continue the steps to divest from Wells Fargo. “We are not only calling on fellow community members to divest from Wells Fargo, but also our public institutions such as the City of Las Cruces. We do not want our tax dollars being used to fund systems that profit from and incentivize the detention of our undocumented brothers and sisters,” said Sara Melton, organizer for NM CAFe. This day of divestment is part of a national day of action condemning Wells Fargo’s exploitative practices.
Background
Wells Fargo claims to be an immigrant friendly banking facility but invests in private prison corporations that lobby for and profit from immigration enforcement and detention, like GEO Group and Core Civic. GEO Group and Core Civic (formerly Correction Corporation of America, CCA) are the two largest private prisons in the nation, operating a network of private prisons and immigration detention centers. When deportations reached a record high under the Obama administration, GEO group nearly doubled their revenues from immigrant detentions.
Wells Fargo heavily invests in private prisons and private immigrant detention centers that detain and incarcerate undocumented people in our community. The bank markets to the Latino community specifically through advertising and marketing programs that allow undocumented immigrants to open bank accounts and then re-invests that money in private prisons that profit off the detention of immigrants.
In addition to hurting immigrants, Wells Fargo’s funding of the Dakota Access Pipeline that threatens Native Americans’ water and sacred sites and would contribute to an increase in climate chance and other environmental destruction. Wells Fargo has a long history of discriminatory lending practices, aggressive foreclosures, and high-risk predatory loans.
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Who: NM CAFe, Southwest Environmental Center, clergy, and community members
What: Community Divestment from Wells Fargo
When: Tuesday, May 2nd at 11:30 a.m.
Where: Wells Fargo on Main and Lohman (600 S. Main)