Worried about supporting ICE through your 401(k)? Here’s What You Can Do.

Yes, that ICE — or more specifically the detention center operators and other contractors that work with ICE — can sit in your 401(k). So can private prisons or defense contractors or fossil fuel giants or surveillance tech corporations. You might never have chosen to invest in these companies, but a system that lacks full transparency has chosen for you by default.

The truth is, the average 401(k) or 403(b) plan automatically funnels your savings into mutual funds or index funds that hold hundreds of companies, some with ties to deportation infrastructure, immigrant detention, or surveillance technologies. So, even if you’re not buying those shares directly on your own, your retirement savings might still invest in them through these funds.

Two of the largest private prison operators in the United States—CoreCivic and GEO Group—contract with the federal government to run for-profit immigration detention centers. Conditions in these facilities have been repeatedly documented as dangerous and dehumanizing, with reports of medical neglect, family separation, and prolonged confinement. BlackRock and Vanguard rank among the biggest institutional owners of CoreCivic and GEO Group. They are also two of the largest asset managers in the world, including funds specifically geared towards retirement investing.

Importantly, exposure to companies involved in detention, surveillance, or fossil fuel extraction is common across the retirement investment industry, not confined to any single firm. However, because large managers like Vanguard, BlackRock, and Fidelity dominate default retirement offerings, their funds are especially likely to appear in employer-sponsored plans—making them a powerful example of how harmful investments become “default” choices for millions of workers.

Three Things You Can Do Right Now

Values-aligned investing takes effort, but it doesn’t have to be your full-time job. Start here:

1) Find out what’s in your plan. Look up the funds in your 401(k) or 403(b) on your retirement provider’s website. Tools like Prison Free Funds allow you to input the fund name and see what companies those funds are invested in. Worth Rises maintains a database that helps you learn about which corporations profit from immigration detention, the prison industrial complex, and related industries.

2) Ask questions. Your HR department or retirement plan administrator works for you — and they can request values-aligned or socially responsible fund options if employees speak up.

3) Consult an advisor about redirecting your dollars. If your employer doesn’t yet offer screened options, talk to an advisor about rolling a portion of your retirement assets into an IRA where you can choose investments that align with your ethics. If you have assets outside of retirement in your investment portfolio, you can partner with a mission-aligned advisor to help design a portfolio that reflects your values without sacrificing long-term sustainability.

At Just Futures, we believe you should be able to save for retirement without compromising justice. We are a fiduciary first and foremost and care deeply about ensuring that your retirement savings are managed in your best financial interest. But even after filtering bad or risky investments, you still have choices to make about where your money goes. That’s why we also screen across more than 80 human rights, environmental, and corporate ethics criteria. Even though some exposure to problematic companies will still exist in the reality of our extractive markets, we work to help minimize and challenge those holdings — and to help make the entire system more transparent. While funds can change their investments daily, as of the most recent publicly available data,¹ Just Futures' target date models had no investments in GEO Group or CoreCivic, which can’t be said if you were invested, for example, in the Vanguard 2055 target date fund (ticker VFFVX).² Just Futures monitors fund holdings on a regular cadence for specific corporate exposures.

We work directly with nonprofits and socially minded employers to design values-aligned 401(k) and 403(b) plans that give employees real choice and transparency about where their retirement money goes. But even if your employer isn’t ready to make that switch, you don’t have to wait. Just Futures also offers individual retirement accounts (IRAs) built on the same screening criteria, so you can start moving your own savings toward the future you believe in — one that funds community well-being, not harm.

If this resonates with you, you’re not alone and you don’t have to figure it out by yourself. If you’re ready to explore whether your organization’s 401(k) or your own IRA can better reflect your values, get in touch with Just Futures to talk through your options and next steps.

~PaKou Her, Managing Director, Narrative & Digital Strategy

¹Most recent portfolio holdings data vary for each model fund. As of dates range from 9/30/2025 to 1/15/2026.

²VFFVX holds VSMPX, which itself holds GEO Group and CoreCivic.

Nothing contained herein is to be considered a solicitation, research material, an investment recommendation or advice of any kind. The information contained herein may contain information that is subject to change without notice. Any investments or strategies referenced herein do not take into account the investment objectives, financial situation or particular needs of any specific person. Product suitability must be independently determined for each individual investor.

You are encouraged to discuss rolling money from one account to another with your financial advisor/planner, considering any potential fees and/or limitation of investment options. There is no guarantee that integrating Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) analysis will improve risk-adjusted returns, lower portfolio volatility over any specific time period, or outperform the broader market or other strategies that do not utilize ESG analysis when selecting investments. The consideration of ESG factors may limit investment opportunities available to a portfolio. In addition, ESG data often lacks standardization, consistency and transparency and for certain companies such data may not be available, complete or accurate.

 Updated January 27, 2026