On Owning Revenue Tied to ICE & A Shift To Values-based Investing

I made a small but deliberate change to my portfolio.

A week ago, I wrote about how money, incentives, and responsibility don’t disappear just because they’re abstracted through markets. I wanted to offer a practical example of what applying that idea can look like.

I sold my U.S. small-cap ETF in my retirement accounts because it owned two companies whose businesses are significantly tied to contracts with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. I replaced it with a very similar small-cap ETF that does not hold those companies.

What pushed me wasn’t optics or outrage, but proportion. In one case, roughly a third of the company’s revenue is tied to ICE contracts. In the other, it’s closer to forty percent. These aren’t incidental relationships at the margins of diversified businesses—which you could also reasonably debate selling—they are central revenue streams.

As much as we like to hide behind our computer screens, owning a stock isn’t just a passive wager on price movement. It’s a claim—however abstract—on a company’s future cash flows. Its growth. Its incentives. In this case, that meant having a claim on future revenue generated by detention and enforcement practices I want nothing to do with.

I don’t believe selling my shares meaningfully harms those companies. Together, they made up 0.11% of the small-cap ETF I sold, and my portfolio isn’t large enough to move anything. I also don’t believe my portfolio is now “clean.” But I do believe there’s a meaningful difference between living inside a system and holding an ownership stake in its expansion, this is values-based investing..

Replacing the ETF wasn’t an act of disengagement. It was an act of alignment. I still own U.S. small-cap companies. I still accept market risk. I just no longer have a direct claim on that specific stream of revenue.

That feels right, and that matters to me.

Not because it fixes anything—but because it clarifies what I’m willing to own.

Money is weird. Due process matters. Prioritize accordingly.

If you have questions about how to untie your portfolio from revenue tied to things you don’t align with, a financial advisor can help. Public information about fund and ETF holdings is also readily available.