French Tech Giant Capgemini Sells US Subsidiary Amid Controversy Over ICE Tracking Contract.
PARIS — French information technology company Capgemini announced Sunday it will sell its United States subsidiary Capgemini Government Solutions after facing mounting pressure over the unit’s contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The decision comes after French lawmakers, including Finance Minister Roland Lescure, demanded the company explain its contract with ICE following the fatal shootings of two American citizens by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis last month.
Capgemini Government Solutions has been under contract since December 18 to provide “skip tracing services for enforcement and removal operations,” which locate individuals whose whereabouts are unknown. The firm was set to be paid more than $4.8 million for its work tracing people for ICE, with the contract continuing until March 15.
In a statement, Capgemini said,
The usual legal constraints imposed in the United States on contracting with federal entities conducting classified activities did not allow the Group to exercise appropriate control over certain aspects of this subsidiary’s operations in order to ensure alignment with the Group’s objectives.
The company announced the sale process would be “initiated immediately” but did not directly link the decision to the ICE contract. The unit represents around 0.4 percent of the group’s estimated 2025 revenue and less than 2 percent of its turnover in the United States.
The controversy erupted after the NGO L’Observatoire des multinationales revealed that Capgemini supplied ICE with a tool used to identify and locate foreign nationals. The watchdog group later claimed Capgemini’s subsidiary was “at the heart of the machine” and that “its final remuneration will depend on the number of people it has helped to detain and deport“.
Capgemini Chief Executive Aiman Ezzat wrote on LinkedIn last week that management,
were recently made aware, through public sources” of the contract with Capgemini Government Solutions.
The announcement follows the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Good, a 37-year-old American woman, was fatally shot on January 7 by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, was shot multiple times and killed by United States Customs and Border Protection agents on January 24 .
French Economy Minister Roland Lescure said,
Thursday that transparency was essential, calling on the company to clarify its contracts with ICE and reassess them if necessary.
Capgemini, listed on France’s CAC 40 index, operates in around 50 countries worldwide and employs more than 340,000 people. The company announced plans in January to cut up to 2,400 jobs in France through redeployments and voluntary departures.
