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California’s two largest pension funds have invested more than $2.7 billion with companies that contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement or the Department of Homeland Security, a new analysis shows.<\/p>\n
CalPERS, the statewide megafund for public employees, has invested about $1.6 billion in tech firm Palantir, arms makers General Dynamics and L3Harris, and telecommunications companies AT&T and CACI. According to an analysis<\/a> The report, conducted by non-profit advocacy and research group Stand.Earth, was released on Thursday. <\/p>\n CalSTRS, which funds public school teacher pensions, has invested $1.1 billion in these companies.<\/p>\n The largest contributions by pension funds were to Palantir, with CalPERS investing $734 million and CalSTRS investing $625 million. <\/p>\n The data included in the analysis was taken from quarterly filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission through December 2025.<\/p>\n Richard Brooks, who leads Stand.earth’s research focused on the financial sector, pointed to the seeming paradox of teachers in California, a sanctuary state that first saw the government’s aggressive immigration enforcement leave students’ families broken up while their retirement funds swelled.<\/p>\n \u201cThere should be an alignment between where the money is being invested and the values \u200b\u200bthat the people of the state embrace,\u201d he said. “People’s hard-earned savings would enable ICE to break up families. It is deeply sobering to me that California’s two largest pensions have decided to turn a blind eye to this.”<\/p>\n CalPERS spokesman James Scullery said the pension fund does not comment on individual holdings, but it does consider “environmental, social and governance matters.” <\/p>\n “Once issues are identified, we work to analyze the situation, gather relevant facts, and find solutions,” Scullery said. <\/p>\n CalPERS, with more than $550 billion in assets, is the largest pension fund in the US with investments Earning 11.6%<\/a> In returns in the previous financial year.<\/p>\n Both CalPERS and CalSTRS state that investment portfolios attempt to minimize risk and maximize returns. <\/p>\n CalSTRS spokeswoman Barbara Zumwalt said the fund “takes a long-term investment approach to manage opportunities and risks across a global portfolio.” <\/p>\n “Everything we do at CalSTRS is based on our mission to secure the financial future of California’s current and retired public school teachers,” Zumwalt said. <\/p>\n According to the CalSTRS website, about 10% <\/a>A portion of a California teacher’s gross annual compensation is invested in CalSTRS’ pension fund. <\/p>\n Andrea Pritchett, 62, a middle school teacher in Berkeley, said a group of teachers in Los Angeles, San Diego, Berkeley and elsewhere in California, called CalSTRS Divest, has been lobbying the pension fund for two years to divest its stake in Palantir, as well as other companies involved in Israel’s U.S.-backed war in Gaza, such as aerospace and defense company Lockheed Martin, heavy machinery company Caterpillar Inc. and weapons manufacturers. Elbit is emphasizing systems.<\/p>\n Pritchett said Palantir is a focal point “because the harm it does to people overseas is also related to the harm (the company) is doing to people in this country.”<\/p>\n Israel signed a deal with Palantir in 2024 to provide artificial intelligence systems to monitor and target Palestinians in “war-related missions”. Bloomberg reported.<\/a> Last year, the Department of Homeland Security awarded Palantir a nearly $30 million contract to create an AI-supported system to help find and track individuals up for deportation, and it signed a new contract earlier this year $1 billion purchase agreement<\/a> With a tech firm.<\/p>\n CalSTRS Divest members say such investments create conflicts with the fund self stated policies,<\/a> Which considers whether a company or industry makes a product that is extremely harmful to human health. But, Pritchett said there has been little movement so far from CalSTRS. <\/p>\n “Their response has been that their fiduciary responsibility outweighs any other consideration,” Pritchett said.<\/p>\n