Laura Berlin, a stay-at-home mother of two from Texas, launched an interactive project titled “Who is Profiting from ICE?” after becoming deeply unsettled by images of immigration agents transporting individuals to foreign detention facilities. Utilizing her background in nonprofit communications, Berlin compiled public records into a Google Map to identify the private companies, chartered airlines, and financial institutions supporting Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.
Her research gained significant momentum in April 2025, when she began investigating the financial ties behind the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement crackdown. She identified GEO Group and CoreCivic as primary contractors, noting that the two firms were awarded nearly $1 billion combined by ICE during the first year of the initiative. Further investigation into corporate filings led her to Citizens Bank, a Rhode Island-based institution with over 1,000 East Coast branches, which she identified as a key lender for these contractors.
Berlin published her findings on the website boycottcitizens.org, which initially saw modest traffic. However, the project gained national attention after activists in Boston utilized her data to launch the De-ICE campaign. The movement escalated following two high-profile incidents: the January 7 shooting death of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, and the January 24 killing of 37-year-old nurse Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents. These events fueled widespread public outrage, causing traffic to Berlin’s website to surge from a few thousand visits to nearly 10 million hits.
The protest movement grew rapidly, with planned demonstrations at Citizens Bank locations increasing from 70 in March to 140 across 17 states by June. Organizers utilized various tactics, including purchasing billboards in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania, hiring planes to fly banners, and attending the bank’s annual board meeting. Peyton Fleming, a strategist involved in the effort, noted that the campaign aimed to damage the bank’s reputation as a socially responsible lender. The strategy proved effective when Jersey City officials announced they would withdraw $265 million from the bank due to its ties to GEO Group.
In June, Citizens Bank announced it would cease lending to the two detention center contractors, citing a business decision based on changing commercial circumstances. Shortly thereafter, CoreCivic announced the sale of two California facilities back to the Department of Homeland Security, freeing up over $1.5 billion. Despite these outcomes, the federal government took a dim view of Berlin’s work. A secret intelligence bulletin obtained by investigators labeled her website a tool for “anarchist extremists” and a potential domestic terrorism threat.
The DHS bulletin, which was distributed to local and federal law enforcement in February, warned that “anti-ICE threat actors” might escalate peaceful protests into violent direct action. While the document acknowledged in red text that some of the information involved First Amendment-protected activities, it placed Berlin’s site under the same surveillance category used for domestic terrorists. Berlin expressed shock at the designation, stating that the information on her site is derived entirely from government databases and is intended to increase public transparency.
Critics of the DHS alert, including Ryan Shapiro, executive director of the watchdog group Property of the People, argue that the government is misusing law enforcement resources to suppress dissent. Shapiro stated that the department is targeting even mild forms of anti-ICE opposition as extremism to protect political interests. A Philadelphia Police Department spokesperson confirmed they shared the information with DHS to aid in situational awareness, while a DHS representative declined to address the specific bulletin, stating only that information from local partners helps sharpen their operational focus.
Berlin remains undeterred by the federal scrutiny, maintaining that her work is a necessary effort to hold institutions accountable. “I’d be lying if I said I’m not angry about all this or afraid about what it means for my own kids,” she said, adding that she is motivated by a desire to create a better future for the next generation. She continues to host a searchable map of ICE contracts, viewing the platform as a vital tool for public record accessibility that should not be portrayed as a threat to national security. The report also notes that laura Berlin watched images of immigration agents rounding up people and flying them to a Latin American prison without due process – and she knew she had to do something. The report also notes that “That situation really haunted me,” she said. The report also notes that what companies were taking money from the government to help deport people, who owned these detention centers where men were being held along the way?” In short. The report also notes that in one case, an East Coast bank broke with two prominent detention center contractors after account holders – including Jersey City, New Jersey – withdrew more than $350 million. The report also notes that it’s the latest example of the Trump administration cracking down on dissent it says could veer into political violence. The report also notes that “The egregious, dehumanizing rhetoric the administration and its allies have relied on to manufacture support for cruel and ill-advised policies was always going to ripple out and hurt people, including kids, in all kinds of ways,” Berlin said.