July 14, 2026
Kate Frese/for PhillyVoice
The progressive nonprofit Indivisible will fly a banner over Citizens Bank Park before Tuesday night's MLB All-Star Game calling on the Phillies to cut ties with Citizens Bank. The activists say the bank's financing relationships with private prison companies CoreCivic and GEO Group, which operate ICE detention centers, are not aligned with the values of players, fans and surrounding communities.
As the Phillies prepared to host Tuesday night's MLB All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park, activists flew an aerial banner over the stadium in South Philly urging the team to sever ties with Citizens Bank. The protesters object to the financial institution's relationships with private prison companies that support Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers across the country.
The banner was visible over the ballpark around 5 p.m. in advance of the All-Star Game's 8 p.m. start time The flyover was arranged by Indivisible Philadelphia, Cooper River Indivisible and SJNOW Indivisible. All three groups are chapters of the progressive nonprofit and advocacy network Indivisible.
"Philadelphia is a city that has long stood with immigrants," organizers said Tuesday. "The Phillies should not lend their name and reputation to a financial institution that helps finance the infrastructure of immigrant detention."
The Phillies have had a naming rights partnership with Citizens Bank since the stadium opened in 2003. The 25-year deal, valued at $95 million, expires in 2028. It includes advertising for the Rhode Island-based bank on billboards, telecasts and radio broadcasts. This is the first time Citizens Bank Park is hosting an All-Star Game. Philadelphia last hosted the Midsummer Classic at Veterans Stadium in 1996.
Citizens Bank, Citizens Financial Group and other subsidiaries have faced mounting scrutiny over their longstanding relationship with the Corrections Corp. of America — now called CoreCivic — and GEO Group. The two companies are the nation's largest operators of for-profit prisons, running 47 ICE detentions centers in the United States. The American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights Watch, the National Immigrant Justice Center, Amnesty International and United Nations leaders have all documented reports of inhumane conditions at private and state-run ICE facilities, including those operated by CoreCivic and GEO Group under federal contracts in recent years.
Citizens Bank has provided a reported $2.5 billion in financing to GEO Group and CoreCivic since 2012, including $100 million in credit extended to the companies in January.
GEO Group's Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Phillipsburg is the largest ICE detention center in the Northeast. A recent report from Temple University law students and Philadelphia-based immigrants rights group Juntos alleges physical and psychological abuse of detainees, lack of legal representation and deficiencies in healthcare. Geo Group also operates Newark's Delaney Hall detention center, where alleged human and civil rights abuses have been a focal point of protests against the Trump administration's immigration enforcement policies. CoreCivic operates New Jersey's Elizabeth Detention Center, a former industrial warehouse where advocates say the company's record of alleged mistreatment of inmates spans more than three decades.
The Indivisible organizers say the banner over Citizens Bank Park puts pressure on the Phillies to reassess their corporate relationship with the bank before extending the naming rights deal.
"We are calling on the team to demonstrate values that reflect the moral standards of their players, fans, and community," the organizers said.
Citizens Bank and the Phillies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the All-Star Game flyover.
Other major Wall Street banks — including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, PNC, Bank of America and Truist — cut off lending to private prison companies in 2019 amid pressure from activists that spurred internal reviews of the industry's operations. The "debanking" wave, which also hit other industries such as gun manufacturers and oil and gas companies, has prompted private prison companies to lobby for Congress to pass a law that would prevent banks from denying their business.
Last month, the Jersey City Council voted unanimously to divest $265 million in city funds from Citizens Bank over its ties to ICE. Montclair Township also is weighing a similar withdrawal of taxpayer funds from the bank, and New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport filed a lawsuit against GEO Group accusing the company of denying health inspectors full access to Delaney Hall in violation of state law.
In Pennsylvania, the Department of Homeland Security canceled plans to convert two former warehouses in Berks and Schuylkill counties into ICE detention centers last month. The facilities are among seven in the U.S. that the federal government had purchased to use for ICE detention and processing. The plans were abandoned following community backlash and lawsuits against DHS.
More than 50 organizations under the banner of New Jersey Citizen Action began circulating a petition last year calling on Citizens Bank's board of directors to end their relationships with CoreCivic and GEO Group.
“This is not a political request. It is a moral one," the petition says. "Financial institutions are not passive actors in the economy. They make choices about which businesses and industries they fund. Those choices have consequences for families, for communities, and for the rule of law."
