France’s Finance Minister Demands Tech Firm Explain ICE Contract
PARIS (AP) — France’s finance minister is urging French tech company Capgemini to be fully transparent about its contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while calls are growing for an examination of the agency’s role in Trump enforcement administration’s pressure on immigrants.
The company, which employs more than 340,000 people in more than 50 countries, signed a contract with ICE in December through its subsidiary Capgemini Government Solutions (CGS).
“I call on Capgemini to shed light on its activities and this policy in a very transparent way and undoubtedly question the nature of these activities,” Finance Minister Roland Lescure told French MPs late Tuesday.
Lescure’s comments come after Capgemini CEO Aiman Ezzat said he was aware of the contract recently awarded to CGS.
“The nature and scope of this work raises questions compared to what we generally do as a business and technology firm,” Ezzat said in a message posted on LinkedIn. “With full respect for CGS’s separate management and restrictions, I have been informed that the independent board of directors has already initiated the process of reviewing the content and scope of this contract and CGS contracting procedures.”
Morris MacMatzen via Getty Images
Ezzat said CGS was in contact with the U.S. federal government and operated under an agreement that allowed it to conduct classified business that required its operations to be separated from the Capgemini Group.
“This creates many restrictions; in particular, CGS has a board of directors controlled by ‘authorised’ independent US directors, decision-making is separate, networks are firewalled and Capgemini Group cannot access any confidential information, confidential contracts or anything related to CGS’s technical operations as required by US regulations,” he said.
Lescure said he was not convinced by the argument that the subsidiary had a separate management structure, which led to Capgemini not being aware of the signed contract.
“I told them that disclosure was not enough,” he said. “And at least … a company with subsidiaries can be expected to know what’s going on within those companies, and that’s what Capgemini has committed to do.”
Trump’s crackdown on immigrants has intensified in recent weeks in Minneapolis, leading to deadly shootings two US citizens in the hands of federal immigration officials.
