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California Rep. Eric Swalwell said he would aggressively push back on federal immigration officers if elected governor, promising to impose new state-level restrictions that would target what he described as failures to unmask while on duty. The remarks came at a town hall in Sacramento, the state capital, as Swalwell sought to define his candidacy less than a month before mail-in ballots go out for California’s June 2 primary.
Swalwell said he planned to make federal immigration officers ineligible for state jobs if elected governor. He also said the state would take away their driver’s licenses if they refused to unmask while on duty, though he did not specify what legal or administrative steps he would use to carry out those policies.
“They think they’re invincible. They’re not,” Swalwell told the crowd in Sacramento. He said the approach reflected what he characterized as his experience confronting federal immigration enforcement in Congress, presenting himself as “battle-tested” in his role as a fighter against President Donald Trump.
Swalwell’s event is part of a series of campaign functions he has planned around California with less than a month to go until the primary, where voters use the state’s “top two” system. Under that system, the two highest vote-getters advance regardless of party, and Democrats have expressed concerns about a possible lock-out if no clear front-runner emerges.
Swalwell also framed his immigration position in terms of his past voting and legislative efforts, saying he wants to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and has supported taking away the agency’s funding. He cited Los Angeles as an early focus of the Trump administration’s immigration sweeps last summer and as the first place it deployed the National Guard.
The town hall included broader campaign proposals as well. Swalwell said he wants to address state budget gaps with a new corporate tax and use state funding to pay for health care for low-income people, including immigrants, and he said he supports letting state employees work remotely, a point he described as contentious in Sacramento.
Swalwell also appealed to business interests alongside his labor- and progressive-focused message, telling the crowd, “I will root for the success of anyone who invests and does business in California, if they work with me to lift the wages of hard-working Californians and expand the benefits,” according to the account of the event. He made the remarks as his campaign continued to face scrutiny from other Democrats, including questions raised in recent weeks about whether he lives in California and accusations from rivals that he has not shown up to vote in Congress.
On Tuesday, Swalwell disputed the criticisms and said he was “not going to be distracted.” Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is term-limited, has not endorsed a candidate to replace him, and the governor’s race has drawn a crowded field, including Tom Steyer and former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter among Democrats, with Republicans Steve Hilton and Sheriff Chad Bianco among the prominent contenders.