Paris: French company Capgemini announced Sunday it is selling off its subsidiary that provides technology services to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, during global scrutiny of ICE agents' tactics in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
France's government had pressured the company to be more transparent about its dealings with ICE, whose actions in Minneapolis in recent weeks have raised concern in France and other countries.
The government's campaign against immigrants in Minnesota's capital has led to the fatal shootings of two US citizens at the hands of federal immigration officers.
Capgemini said in a statement Sunday that it will immediately start the process of selling off its subsidiary Capgemini Government Solutions. It said the rules for working with US federal government agencies "did not allow the group to exercise appropriate control over certain aspects of the operations of this subsidiary to ensure alignment with the group's objectives."
It didn't give further explanation for the decision, but noted that the subsidiary represents only 0.4 per cent of the company's estimated 2025 revenue.
Capgemini CEO Aiman Ezzat said he was only recently made aware of the subsidiary's contract with ICE. In a LinkedIn post, he said, "The nature and scope of this work has raised questions compared to what we typically do as a business and technology firm.''
The company selloff announcement came after French Finance Minister Roland Lescure, speaking to parliament last week, urged Capgemini "to shed light, in an extremely transparent manner, on its activities ... and to question the nature of these activities." Lescure's office did not comment on the company's decision.
Non-governmental organisation Multinationals Observatory reported that Capgemini Government Solutions provided ICE technical tools to locate targets for the immigration crackdown. CapgemiSni did not immediately respond to a query about the tools.
Capgemini is a consulting and technology company that employs more than 340,000 people in more than 50 countries.
This report was published from a syndicated wire feed. Apart from the headline, the EdexLive Desk has not edited the copy.