European Tech Big Cuts Off U.S. Subsidiary After Multimillion Greenback ICE Contract

French tech large Capgemini introduced on Sunday that it’ll instantly divest from its American subsidiary Capgemini Authorities Options, following mounting scrutiny over the corporate’s ties with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Capgemini was designated because the lead contractor of a brand new ICE surveillance program for “skip-tracing” immigrants. Skip-tracing is a technique usually utilized by debt collectors to find people who find themselves troublesome to search out, and it has not been utilized by ICE earlier than.

As a part of the brand new program, ICE enlisted a handful of nongovernment entities to trace down 50,000 immigrants a month, first by figuring out the place they dwell and work via “all know-how techniques accessible,” after which confirming via “bodily, in-person surveillance,” together with photographing, in keeping with the Washington Post. The company awarded contracts to 10 corporations in December. As a part of the contract, the businesses might earn greater than $1 billion by the tip of subsequent yr, in keeping with The Intercept.

The best potential bounty of $365 million over two years would go to Capgemini Authorities Options, European tech large Capgemini’s U.S. subsidiary. Capgemini Authorities Options has been working with the Division of Homeland Safety for greater than 15 years, in keeping with Capgemini CEO Aiman Ezzat.

As ICE escalates its violent immigration crackdown, protesters have began concentrating on corporations that assist turbocharge these efforts. Anti-ICE protesters are organizing nationwide general strikes and boycotts, whereas hundreds of tech workers have signed a letter asking their corporations to cancel all contracts with ICE. Even Italians have organized protests as ICE brokers descend upon Milan for the Winter Olympics. The French aren’t any strangers to anti-ICE sentiment, too.

Following the deadly shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE brokers in Minneapolis final month, scrutiny of Capgemini’s work with the DHS mounted in France. Union employees and authorities officers, together with the French minister of the financial system Roland Lescure, demanded that the corporate evaluation its contracts with the American authorities.

An impartial board of administrators started reviewing the contract final week, Ezzat mentioned.

“We have been lately made conscious, via public sources, of the character of a contract awarded to CGS by DHS’ Immigration and Customs Enforcement in December 2025. The character and scope of this work has raised questions in comparison with what we sometimes do as a enterprise and know-how agency,” the chief govt mentioned in a LinkedIn submit final Sunday.

Per week later, the evaluation concluded that ” the customary authorized restrictions imposed for contracting with federal authorities entities finishing up categorized actions in america didn’t permit the Group to train applicable management over sure facets of the operations of this subsidiary to make sure alignment with the Group’s aims,” Capgemini mentioned in a press release.

The divestment resolution arrives amid a tense geopolitical state of affairs between France and america. There was deep-seated resentment amongst Europeans of the Trump administration’s actions since taking workplace final yr. Early final yr, French residents organized boycotts of Tesla as a result of CEO Elon Musk’s shut ties to the administration, together with some manufacturers which might be simply closely related to an American id, like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s.

As Trump escalates his tariff threats on the bloc, French officers have aimed to restrict the usage of some American know-how in authorities areas to ease the nation’s reliance on the U.S. They’ve additionally repeatedly and brazenly requested the European Union to take a stronger stance in opposition to Trump’s tariff threats, together with by unleashing the Union’s “commerce bazooka” that might permit restrictions on digital companies corporations like Meta and Google.