The Montclair Township Council voted unanimously Tuesday to pull all of the town’s money — about $91.1 million — out of Citizens Bank, protesting the bank’s financing of the private companies that run federal immigration detention centers.
The July 14 resolution authorizes Montclair’s chief financial officer to divest “all Township funds from Citizens Bank as soon as is practicable” and strikes the bank from the town’s list of approved depositories. Town records show the deposits equal more than four-fifths of Montclair’s $106.8 million annual budget, making Citizens one of the town’s largest banking relationships.
Montclair is the latest New Jersey municipality to move its money. Jersey City voted last month to divest from Citizens. The De-ICE Citizens Bank coalition, which organized the pressure campaign, says the two New Jersey towns have pulled more than $330 million combined. Neighboring Bloomfield’s governing body discussed a similar step the night before Montclair’s vote.
“I believe that this is the right thing to do,” Deputy Mayor Susan Shin Andersen said during the meeting. “We can make the conscious choice not to be complicit in putting our residents taxpayer dollars into a financial institution that financially supports these concentration camp private prisons.”