French MPs demand explanation over tech firm’s contract to help ICE in US | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
French lawmakers demanded an explanation after one of the country’s largest tech companies signed a multimillion-dollar contract to help US enforcement agency ICE track and deport immigrants.
The revelation that a subsidiary of Capgemini, a multinational digital services company listed on the Paris stock exchange, had agreed to provide “skip tracking,” a technique for locating targeted individuals, with huge bonuses if successful, sparked outrage in France.
Ministers and MPs are calling for greater transparency on contracts that could violate human rights. ICE faced intense backlash after its agents killed two US citizens in Minnesota this month.
Capgemini admitted that its US subsidiary Capgemini Group Solutions (CGS) signed a deal contract with ICE He said it was in December but had not yet come into force.
website Multinational ObservatoryThe corporate watchdog said CGS struck a $4.8 million deal with ICE’s Detention Compliance and Removal office for “investigation and personal background check services.” The document states that CGS will provide “monitoring services for enforcement and removal operations” with bonuses of up to $365 million for the successful detection and localization of aliens.
French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin said: “Contracts of French groups deserve close scrutiny” and added: “Respect for human rights is an issue.”
Hadrien Clouet, a member of parliament from the left-wing party La France Insoumise, said: “It is time for France to accept its responsibilities. French private companies are cooperating with ICE. We do not accept this.”
Economy minister Roland Lescure told the National Assembly that he was calling on Capgemini “to shed light on its activities in a highly transparent manner… and to strictly question the nature of these activities.”
Founded in 1967, Capgemini has 350,000 employers worldwide. Research public documents It shows he has 13 current contracts with ICE. One of these involves managing a helpline for victims of crimes committed by foreigners.
A page on the company’s website said after its removal that it was working “closely” with ICE’s deportation operations to reduce deportation delays and costs. Multinational Observatory posted a screenshot Where Capgemini brags about its role in “enforcement and removal operations” for ICE.
It reads: “Capgemini has leveraged supply chain best practices to help ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) be more efficient…The Capgemini team is working closely with ERO to help minimize the time required and cost incurred to remove all removable illegal aliens from the United States.”
The CGT union at Capgemini called for an immediate halt to all cooperation with ICE. “These partnerships are not only contrary to the values espoused by Capgemini, but also make our group actively complicit in serious human rights violations,” a union spokesman said.
In an email to Capgemini employees, company director Mathieu Dougados acknowledged that the ICE contract raised “legitimate questions” but said the Paris company had only just become aware of the nature of the contract and was unable to obtain details of CGS’s technical operations “in accordance with US regulations”.
“At this stage, the contract is not being enforced as it is subject to appeal,” he wrote.
Lescure said he contacted Capgemini to express his concerns and told the company that its explanations were “not good enough.” “I call on Capgemini to shed light on its activities and this policy in a highly transparent manner and question the nature of these activities,” he said.
