Webinar on April 9 will brief non-profits and foundations on how to move retirement funds away from corporations profiting from immigrant detention and deportation.
NATIONAL — A new campaign launched today calls on non-profits, foundations, and other values-based institutions to steer away from The Vanguard Group due to its major investments in private prison corporations that profit from immigrant detention and deportation. More specifically, the Drop Vanguard campaign asks institutions to pledge to drop Vanguard as their retirement plan provider and remove Vanguard- and BlackRock-managed funds from their retirement fund offerings.
Vanguard is one of the nation’s largest retirement plan providers and one of the largest shareholders of GEO Group and CoreCivic, two private prison corporations that operate the large majority of immigration detention facilities. Through its funds, Vanguard currently owns approximately 11% of GEO Group and 13% of CoreCivic.
“When organizations rely on Vanguard to manage their retirement funds, their dollars are inadvertently helping sustain an industry built on human suffering,” said Celina Chapin, Chief Advocacy Officer at Worth Rises, the organization leading the campaign. “Many institutions working for justice often don’t realize their retirement investments are tied to corporations profiting from detention and deportation.”
In just the past year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention has grown an unprecedented 75% to over 70,000 people, and the human cost is staggering. The majority of immigrants detained by ICE are held in facilities operated by private prison corporations with long histories of abuse, medical neglect, and wrongful deaths — namely GEO Group and CoreCivic. Reports include severe overcrowding with people sleeping the floor; denials of food, water, and medical care; physical and sexual abuse by guards — conditions that prominent human rights organizations have determined constitute torture. As a result, last year was the deadliest year in ICE detention since 2004, with at least 32 deaths in custody, nearly three times the prior year’s number.
For GEO Group and CoreCivic, this devastation is just business. Over the past year, both corporations have signed billion-dollar contracts to reopen and expand their facilities for use as detention centers. These contracts have translated to meaningful earnings growth that their corporate executives have boasted about on investor calls. In 2025, together GEO Group and CoreCivic reported nearly $5 billion in revenues, representing 8% and 13% growth over the prior year, respectively.
To support institutions interested in taking action, campaign organizers will host an informational webinar on April 9 at 3:00 p.m. EST, providing an overview of the campaign, the role of institutional investors in detention expansion, and practical guidance on how organizations can move their retirement funds to more ethical, mission-aligned alternatives.
For organizations whose missions center on human dignity, the campaign offers a concrete step toward ensuring their finances reflect their values. Organizations interested in learning more about the campaign or signing the pledge can visit DropVanguard.org