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France’s finance minister has urged Capgemini to explain a contract the French tech company signed with the US immigration enforcement agency ICE, amid growing criticism of it following weeks of protests against Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The intervention comes after two US citizens were killed by ICE officers in Minneapolis, incidents that have intensified scrutiny and an international backlash against the agency’s conduct.
“I urge Capgemini to shed light, in an extremely transparent manner, on its activities, on this policy, and undoubtedly to question the nature of these activities,” finance minister Roland Lescure told French parliament on Tuesday evening.
His comments come after days of controversy in Italy over the inclusion of ICE agents in the US security team sent to the upcoming Winter Olympics hosted in the Italian Alps. The Italian government on Tuesday sought to quell tensions by clarifying that the ICE agents will be confined to the premises of the US consulate in Milan.
Video footage captured in Minnesota shows the shooting of two US citizens during altercations with ICE officers, spurring protests across the US. The Department of Homeland Security has insisted protesters in Minneapolis obstructed ICE’s work as it arrested and deported migrants.
Capgemini’s US subsidiary Capgemini Government Solutions (CGS) signed a contract with ICE in December, which prompted the company’s chief executive Aiman Ezzat to explain the agreement on LinkedIn. The contract is worth $4.8mn to provide ICE with “investigation and personal background check services”, according to US government records.
The US branch had acted autonomously as part of rules that allow it to work on classified projects with US agencies, Ezzat wrote. He added that the rest of the group had only become aware of it recently “through public sources” in the media.
“The nature and scope of this work has raised questions compared to what we typically do as a business and technology firm,” Ezzat wrote on Sunday.
“The independent board of directors has already begun the process of reviewing the content and scope of this contract and CGS contracting procedures,” he added.
Lescure argued that it is the responsibility of the company’s leadership to know about the activities of its auxiliaries.
“I told them privately that this explanation was insufficient and that the very least . . . a company that owns subsidiaries [should] know what is happening in those companies, and that is what Capgemini has committed to doing,” he said.
Capgemini did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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