Capgemini, the French IT powerhouse, announced on Sunday its decision to divest a subsidiary contracted by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, following global outrage over two killings during ICE operations.
Capgemini, which has operations in approximately 50 nations and stands as one of France’s prominent listed firms, convened an urgent board meeting this weekend after navigating parliamentary inquiries and government demands for operational clarity.
Intense Scrutiny
The organisation has faced intense scrutiny recently over an agreement its American unit, Capgemini Government Solutions, entered into with ICE to track and identify foreign nationals in the United States.
The deaths of two individuals — Renee Good and Alex Pretti — at the hands of ICE and CBP border patrol personnel in Minneapolis have triggered universal condemnation of the US federal agency.
“The divestiture process of this business will be initiated immediately,” Capgemini said in a statement.
“Capgemini determined that the customary legal restrictions imposed for contracting with federal government entities carrying out classified activities in the United States did not allow the Group to exercise appropriate control over certain aspects of the operations of this subsidiary,” the statement said.
The subsidiary in question accounts for 0.4% of the group’s projected 2025 global earnings and under 2% of its American revenue, according to company data.
In a staff memo distributed earlier this week, the group noted that the contentious contract, finalised in December, was currently “the subject of an appeal”.
Last week, Capgemini Chief Executive Aiman Ezzat wrote on LinkedIn that the management “were recently made aware, through public sources”, of the contract with Capgemini Government Solutions.
At CGS, “decision making is separate, networks are firewalled, and the Capgemini group cannot access any classified information (or) classified contracts,” Ezzat added.
Frederic Bolore, representing the CFDT union, said he had never witnessed a crisis of this magnitude during his 32-year tenure at the firm, as reported by the news agency AFP.
“It’s a huge shock for the employees,” he told AFP.
Who Exposed the ICE- CGS Partnership?
The campaign group Multinationals Observatory originally exposed the ICE partnership.
Public federal records indicate that the ICE-CGS agreement, signed on 18 December, is valued at $4.8 million.
These disclosures caused a significant backlash in France, drawing a formal reprimand from Economy Minister Roland Lescure, who insisted on full disclosure.
On Saturday, Multinationals Observatory alleged that the Capgemini unit had been serving ICE even prior to the December contract with President Donald Trump’s administration.
“Documents suggest that, contrary to what the group’s management claims, Capgemini Government Solutions was already providing skip tracing services to Trump’s anti-migrant police before signing its controversial new contract in December,” the campaign group said.
Separately, on 20 January, Capgemini revealed plans to cut up to 2,400 positions in France through a combination of voluntary exits and internal redeployments.
