totalconservative.com — A billionaire Democrat running California once vowed to throw federal immigration agents in jail, exposing just how far the left will go to undermine border enforcement and the rule of law.
Story Snapshot
- Tom Steyer’s gubernatorial campaign laid out a plan to “arrest and prosecute” federal immigration agents working in California.
- His platform labeled Immigration and Customs Enforcement a “criminal organization” and compared agents to a “violent extremist group.”[2][1]
- The proposal relied on using state laws and the California Attorney General to target federal officers acting under federal authority.[1][2]
- The plan highlighted the growing push on the left to criminalize immigration enforcement and challenge federal supremacy over border security.[1][2]
Steyer’s Promise: Jail Federal Agents For Doing Their Jobs
California billionaire Tom Steyer built his campaign on a direct threat: as governor, he would “arrest and prosecute” Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and their leadership for what he called “criminal behavior.”[1] His own press materials described a strategy to “put ICE agents and their leadership in jail for their crimes,” arguing that the state should treat them like a “violent extremist group.”[1] This was not a careless soundbite; it was a central, repeated campaign promise and a featured plank on his issues page.[1][2]
Steyer’s campaign messaging went far beyond criticism of specific operations or individual misconduct. He declared that “you can’t reform a criminal organization” and flatly branded Immigration and Customs Enforcement as criminal, claiming agents were “terrorizing Californians.”[2] A separate article under his name argued that California must “go after both their agents on the streets and their leadership within the Department of Homeland Security” to stop what he called an “authoritarian takeover.”[1] By framing routine federal immigration enforcement as systemic criminality, Steyer sought to justify state-level prosecutions of federal officers.[1][2]
The Legal Blueprint: Using State Power Against Federal Enforcement
To operationalize his promise, Steyer outlined a five-part framework designed to give California the tools to pursue Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents through state law.[1] First, he pledged to “pass aggressive legislation” barring any law enforcement agency from profiling individuals based on race, ethnicity, language, occupation, or location, stressing that “federal badges” should no longer serve as a shield for alleged abuse.[1][2] Second, he would expand the authority of the California Attorney General so the state could pursue “supervisory liability” and criminally prosecute not just agents, but their leadership for supposed violence.[1][2]
Third, Steyer promised to appoint and fund a special investigative unit focused specifically on Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in California, including detention facility conditions, with the goal of collecting evidence for prosecutions.[1][2] Fourth, he proposed dramatically expanding immigration legal defense in the state, explicitly tying that to enabling those he described as “detained and kidnapped by ICE” to report “ICE’s crimes” and help take agents “to court.”[1] Fifth, he called for a statewide “Know Your Rights” campaign to train Californians how to confront, film, and challenge immigration officers in the field.[1][2] All five pillars served one end: treating federal agents as criminal suspects under state authority.
Evidence Gaps, Federal Supremacy, And The Constitutional Clash
Despite the aggressive rhetoric, Steyer’s own materials did not name specific agents, lay out concrete incidents with dates and charges, or present case files demonstrating individual criminal liability.[1][2] His campaign cited a July 2025 decision by the United States District Court for the Central District of California finding that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had engaged in racial and ethnic profiling, but that civil finding does not itself establish state-level criminal guilt for particular officers.[2] The public plan relied heavily on sweeping labels like “criminal organization” rather than detailed evidence tied to named defendants.[1][2]
'Watch Me:' Tom Steyer Vows to Arrest ICE Agents in California https://t.co/4854GoHOY5 “Read This”(dummy) Under the Supremacy Clause of Article VI of the US Constitution, and under longstanding Supreme Court precedent, states may not criminally prosecute federal officers for…
— pat (@patgill69033215) May 26, 2026
Steyer insisted “there is a solid legal foundation” for California to expand protections and prosecute Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents under state law, pointing to arguments from unnamed constitutional scholars and to a ruling in United States v. California that, he claimed, allowed the state to regulate federal officers if the rules also applied to state and local police.[1] However, his campaign literature did not supply a full jurisdictional analysis of the Supremacy Clause, federal officer immunity, or preemption—issues that govern whether state prosecutors can punish federal officials acting under color of federal authority.[1] That omission underscores how much of the proposal functioned as political and ideological messaging against immigration enforcement, rather than a fully tested legal strategy.
Sources:
[1] Web – In New Ad, Steyer Calls to Abolish ICE and Prosecute Agents
[2] YouTube – ICE Is ‘Criminal’ – California Governor Candidate Tom Steyer
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