A billionaire Democrat candidate once vowed to put federal immigration agents in jail for doing their jobs—and his plan shows just how far the left is willing to go to criminalize border enforcement.
Story Snapshot
- Tom Steyer’s campaign openly promised to “arrest and prosecute” federal immigration agents in California.
- His plan brands Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) a “criminal organization” and compares agents to the mob.[1][3]
- The proposal leans on aggressive state laws and a special investigative unit to target federal officers for on-duty actions.[1]
- The strategy highlights how far the activist left will go to undermine federal immigration enforcement and blur constitutional limits.
Steyer’s Pledge To Arrest Federal Immigration Agents
Tom Steyer’s own campaign materials state that as governor of California he would “arrest and prosecute ICE agents and their leadership,” accusing them of “criminal behavior.”[1] His press release and follow‑on policy essay describe a system that would “put ICE agents and their leadership in jail for their crimes,” explicitly treating the federal agency as a violent extremist group rather than a lawful arm of the United States government.[1] In televised remarks, Steyer called Immigration and Customs Enforcement “a criminal organization” and insisted the state must work to abolish it.[2][3] These are not off‑hand comments; they are the central justification he gives for building a state‑run prosecution machine aimed at federal officers.[1][3]
Steyer’s “Stop ICE from terrorizing Californians” issue page doubles down on this framing, declaring that “you cannot reform a criminal organization” and accusing agents of brutal and unlawful conduct against residents.[3] The same page claims Californians watched “Trump’s masked agents” murder individuals, using emotionally charged examples to argue that normal federal enforcement is equivalent to criminal violence.[3] Yet across these documents, his campaign does not identify specific agents, dates, operations, or charges that have produced criminal convictions or even filed indictments.[1][3] The accusations function more as political narrative than as case‑ready evidence, while still demanding jail time for named and unnamed federal officers.[1][3]
The Legal Blueprint: Using State Power Against Federal Officers
In a detailed Substack manifesto, Steyer lays out a five‑step plan that he says would give California “the power it needs to take on ICE and win,” explicitly by targeting both street‑level agents and leadership inside the Department of Homeland Security.[1] First, he promises “aggressive legislation” banning racial profiling by any law‑enforcement officer, including federal agents working in the state, making Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity subject to new state crimes and civil penalties.[1] He then proposes to empower the California Attorney General to pursue “supervisory liability” so state prosecutors can criminally charge not only front‑line officers but also their federal supervisors for alleged violence tied to immigration enforcement operations.[1] Steyer claims this structure would let California “criminally prosecute and imprison” federal personnel for actions that Washington sees as part of their job.[1]
The plan next calls for a special investigative unit, funded and directed by the governor’s office and the Attorney General, dedicated to building cases against Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and detention facilities.[1] This unit would collect evidence, solicit complaints, and coordinate with a greatly expanded immigration legal‑defense network that Steyer wants the state to finance.[1] In his telling, public defenders and advocacy lawyers would feed allegations of misconduct to the investigator, who in turn would prepare criminal referrals against federal agents and their leadership for state prosecutors.[1] Steyer argues there is “a solid legal foundation” for this approach, citing a 2026 federal court ruling in United States v. California that, he says, confirms the state can regulate Immigration and Customs Enforcement conduct so long as parallel rules apply to state and local police.[1] However, his campaign documents do not spell out how this would overcome long‑standing doctrines like federal supremacy or federal‑officer immunity that generally shield on‑duty federal personnel from state criminal charges.[1][3]
Blurring Lines Between Political Rhetoric And Criminal Accusation
Steyer’s publications repeatedly describe Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as kidnappers who “detain, arrest, attack, and brutalize Americans,” using such language to justify his call to treat them like the mob.[1] His issue page points to a July 2025 ruling from the United States District Court for the Central District of California that found agents engaged in racial and ethnic profiling, and he elevates that civil finding into the backbone of a criminal‑prosecution agenda.[3] What his own record does not provide is incident‑level documentation linking named officers to defined state crimes such as assault, kidnapping, or civil‑rights violations, backed by sworn testimony and judicial findings.[1][3] Instead, his campaign relies on broad institutional condemnation—calling Immigration and Customs Enforcement a “criminal organization”—to rationalize criminal prosecutions that would test the very edges of constitutional federalism.[3]
Tom Steyer: “We should abolish ICE, it’s a criminal organization. We should be prosecuting ICE agents for racial profiling, for committing violence against Californians.”pic.twitter.com/wK1MeaDWU9
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) May 26, 2026
This episode illustrates a wider pattern where partisan activists on the left reframe policy disagreements as battles against “criminal” federal agencies, then urge states to do what the federal government supposedly will not.[1] In Steyer’s case, the target is immigration enforcement under Trump, but the underlying move—turning Washington agents into presumed felons in the court of public opinion—could easily be aimed next at other institutions conservatives value, from border patrol to federal firearms enforcement.[1][3] For readers who care about the Constitution, limited government, and the rule of law, the Steyer plan is not just another campaign stunt; it is a glimpse of how aggressively some on the left are willing to weaponize state power to intimidate and potentially jail federal officers for carrying out national immigration policy.
Sources:
[1] Web – In New Ad, Steyer Calls to Abolish ICE and Prosecute Agents
[2] YouTube – ICE Is ‘Criminal’ – California Governor Candidate Tom Steyer
[3] Web – Stop ICE from terrorizing Californians | Tom Steyer for Governor
