Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), a candidate for California Governor in 2026, is enumerating ways in which state governments can fight back against what he characterizes as vast and dangerous ICE overreach into communities across the U.S. as part of the immigration-deportation sweeps being conducted by President Trump’s DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
Saying what he hopes to do as governor — and encouraging other governors to follow suit — Swalwell is articulating a pledge to make ICE agents unemployable by the state.
As governor, Swalwell says, he will “use the powers of the office,” vowing to “take away” the driver’s licenses of those who wear a mask as ICE workers and saying previous employment with ICE will render a worker “unemployable by the state.”
If you work for ICE, you will be unhirable in California. pic.twitter.com/eURLFma3S6
— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) January 22, 2026
Claiming that the position of states in relation to federal law enforcement is “not weak,” Swalwell justified these potential moves by claiming “we have to go on offense, otherwise the most vulnerable in our communities are on defense.”
Asked repeatedly on CNN by interviewer Kasie Hunt if he is labelling every ICE officer a “fascist,” rather than acknowledging some may be “guys just trying to provide for their families,” Swalwell contended that there are “other jobs” that don’t entail the brutality he is seeing in his communities.
He repeats that working for ICE is “a choice.” Of those who make that choice, given the ICE record, he says he doesn’t “want you working in the state.”
Swalwell: If you continue to work for them now, seeing what they’re doing, dragging women by their hair through the streets, deporting a four year old battling cancer, shooting a mother… that’s a choice. No one is forcing you to do that. I don’t want you working in the state.… pic.twitter.com/pL6i7gNeaS
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 22, 2026
Swalwell did not provide specifics on the legal pathway for his proposed actions, though in an interview with Katie Phang, the Congressman said he would use his “emergency powers” as governor to “tell every state agency we are not, as a policy, hiring ICE agents.”