The French technology company Capgemini has confirmed that it is selling its government operations subsidiary in the United StatesCapgemini Government Solutions (CGS). The company, according to Reuters, has made this decision after the pressure it has experienced in recent days to provide explanations for a contract it signed with ICE, the US immigration agency.
Criticism and mass protests against ICE have intensified in recent weeks after the Trump Administration’s immigration policy intensified, with large-scale deployments in states like Minnesota, with disastrous consequences for its citizens.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE and the US Border Patrol are carrying out different types of operations that they claim are to detain and deport illegal immigrants, but which have led to indiscriminate detentions of US citizens, legal residents and even minors; since several citizens and residents have lost their lives after being attacked by ICE.
This has led to criticism and protests throughout the country, and pressure on companies that have contracts with ICE and DHS to break those contracts. In the case of Capgemini, these pressures lead to the sale of its operations in the US, given that, as they have acknowledged in a statement, “The usual legal restrictions imposed in the United States on contracting with federal entities that carry out classified activities did not allow the Group to exercise adequate control over certain aspects of this subsidiary’s operations to ensure its alignment with the Group’s objectives.«.
In view of this, Capgemini is going to immediately launch a process to divest CGS. It is not a step that will cause great economic or operational damage, since this division only reaches 0.4% of its income globally, and represents less than 2% of its income in the United States.
In recent weeks, CGS has been blamed for much of Capgemini’s problems after winning a contract with ICE to provide services that have been described as “background check and investigation services«, hired by an office known as Detention and Expulsion Compliance.
In view of the fact that this contract appears to contribute to ICE’s activities, and given the criticism that arose from its signing, the CEO of Grupo Capgemini, Aiman Ezzatacknowledged a few days ago in a Linkedin post on his profile that «The nature and scope of this work has raised questions in comparison to what we usually do as technology and commercial companies.«.
Ezzat has also acknowledged that CGS has a structure that implies that “operates under a special security agreement, which allows it to work on classified matters for the United States Government«. Also, this makes it necessary for its operations to be separate from those of the Capgemini Group.
The manager also points out that this situation creates many complications for the company, especially because «CGS has a board of directors controlled by “authorized” US independent directors, decision-making is independent, networks are protected by firewalls, and the Capgemini Group cannot access any classified information, classified contracts, or anything related to CGS’s technical operations, as required by US regulations.«.
Despite this, it was already made public that the independent board of directors had undertaken a process of reviewing the content and scope of the contract and CGS’s contracting procedures. Despite his explanations, the criticism did not cease, and even intensified from certain levels of the government.
During the following days, statements such as those of the Minister of Finance of France, Roland Lescurewhich asked for explanations about this contract in the middle of last week. Finally, Capgemini has decided to divest CGS, although they have not clarified whether or not once the sale is formalized this division will be able to use Capgemini’s intellectual property or assets. For now it is also unknown if there is any buyer for the division, nor when the sale could be formalized.
