Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents escort a detained immigrant into an elevator after he exited an immigration courtroom on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Olga Fedorova, file)

By The Canadian Press

Canadian banks, pension funds have poured billions into ICE contractors

Mar 30, 2026 | 1:00 AM

OTTAWA — Major Canadian banks and pension funds have provided tens of billions of dollars to American contractors for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, an investigation by the non-profit Stand.earth has found.

The environmental advocacy group analyzed financial data from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the private financial data firm LSEG. It said it found that Canadian financial institutions have backed multiple companies that have major contracts with ICE to provide equipment or services, through investments, loans and bonds totalling about US$35 billion.

The companies that benefited from those Canadian investments include: data analytics firm Palantir; major U.S. defence contractors General Dynamics and L3Harris; the IT firm CACI; and telecom giant AT&T. CoreCivic and Geo Group, which construct and manage detention centres, also benefited but to a lesser extent.

Palantir, owned by major Republican donor Peter Thiel, supplies technology to ICE that helps it track individuals for detention and deportation.

Stand.earth said this raises fresh concerns about corporate financial ethics in Canada. Citing ICE’s “horrifying” human rights record, it’s calling on the federal government to launch hearings on the matter.

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Richard Brooks, finance director with Stand.earth, said Canadians should be alarmed to learn their savings and pensions are supporting U.S. President Donald Trump’s violent immigration crackdown and mass deportation campaign.

“We think it’s important for Canadians to know that their money — their savings in the bank, their mortgage or their hard-earned pension — is not agnostic money. It is actually being used to invest and attempt to profit from the violence that is happening in the United States right now,” Brooks told The Canadian Press.

“When Canadians contribute to their pensions or invest in their banks or put their savings into banks, they expect that money is going to go into building a secure future, not into border surveillance, not into ripping children out of their parents’ arms and taking them into detention facilities, not into surveilling.”

Stand.earth has closely tracked the finances behind fossil fuel projects and has been sharply critical of Canadian banks for being major global backers of oil and gas operations.

The advocacy group reported that the Canada Pension Plan, nine other public pensions and all of Canada’s major banks have invested in companies that provide services to ICE through multimillion-dollar contracts.

Most of the contracts have been issued since 2025 through ICE or its parent department, Homeland Security.

Brooks said Canadian banks TD, RBC, Scotiabank, CIBC and BMO have collectively provided these companies with financing through loans and bonds worth more than US$23 billion since 2020. The banks, along with financial services firm Desjardins, together invested at least US$9.8 billion in the ICE-connected firms, he said.

Public pensions have invested more than US$2.5 billion in these companies, Brooks said. The Canada Pension Plan is by far the biggest investor, followed by Caisse de Depot et de Placement du Quebec, British Columbia Investment Management and PSP investments, among others.

Brooks said he was most surprised to learn the CPP has invested US$1.6 billion in the companies. The California Public Employees Retirement System has invested roughly the same amount.

“For CPP to be investing to the same scale that the largest pension fund in the United States is investing in these companies, that really blew me away. It made me think they’re no better than U.S. pensions, and they should be better because we have different values in Canada,” Brooks said.

ICE has been mired in controversy and pursued by lawsuits over its agents’ aggressive tactics and alleged violations of civil rights while rounding up vast numbers of immigrants for deportation.

Federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens in Minnesota during the immigration enforcement operation in that state. Dozens of people, including a Canadian, have died in ICE custody after being detained since January 2025, when Trump was inaugurated.

NDP MP Jenny Kwan said the report is “deeply troubling” and demonstrates the need for “greater transparency and accountability.”

“I am deeply concerned by recent findings that Canadian public pensions and major financial institutions are investing billions in companies linked to U.S. ICE operations,” Kwan said.

“These investments raise serious ethical questions about the role Canadian public funds play in supporting practices widely criticized for human rights violations, including the detention and mistreatment of migrants.”

She said there should be a “reassessment” of the ethical frameworks that guide public pensions and the portfolios of financial institutions.

The various pension funds and banks did not offer comment for this story by deadline. Nathalie Bergeron, a spokesperson for the Canadian Bankers Association, said her organization does “not comment on the individual operational decisions of its members.”

Banks and pension funds are federally regulated entities and the finance minister is directly responsible for the Canada Pension Plan.

When asked for comment about the report, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne’s office said it’s up to those institutions — which operate at arm’s length from government — to decide independently how they invest their funds.

“Canadian pension funds, much like banks and other financial institutions in Canada, are governed and managed independently — and operate in a commercial manner at arm’s length from federal and provincial governments,” said spokesperson John Fragos.

“Their investment strategies are theirs to own, and guided by independent and professional boards of directors, who oversee, among other things, risk management and investment policies. Questions on individual investment transactions should be directed toward them.”

He said the federal government is currently “seized with creating an attractive domestic investment profile” and drawing more private investment into the country.

Last year, many Canadians were scandalized to learn that the Brampton-based vehicle manufacturer Roshel was selling armoured vehicles to ICE.

The federal government itself has also awarded contracts and subsidies to ICE contractors.

The tech publication The Logic has reported that Ottawa-based tech company JSI, which provides wiretapping tools to ICE, is getting $1 million in federal funds to commercialize AI products for law enforcement and security agencies.

National Defence awarded Palantir’s Canadian subsidiary with a $14.4 million software contract in 2020, according to documents tabled in Parliament last year.

ICE also made headlines in Canada when it sought to purchase a building in Virginia owned by the property arm of the Jim Pattison Group for use as a “processing facility.” The Canadian company later said it would not sell the building to ICE.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 30, 2026.

Kyle Duggan, The Canadian Press