Tipsheet

'Watch Me:' Tom Steyer Vows to Arrest ICE Agents in California

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  May 26, 2026 8:30 AM

Tom Steyer, one of the numerous Democrats running for California Governor, may be more radical than Gavin Newsom. Earlier this month, Steyer promised to prosecute ICE agents up to and including White House aide Stephen Miller and former head of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.

The Supremacy Clause, of course, disagrees. But that doesn't seem to matter to Steyer, who is vowing to arrest ICE agents, telling The California Post to 'watch me' as they warn he won't be able to enact his tyrannical little plan

Here's more:

There is a certain kind of politician who has learned that saying something loudly and confidently is a perfectly adequate substitute for saying something true. California’s gubernatorial race has produced a bumper crop of them.

Tom Steyer, the billionaire-liberal-donor-turned candidate, has called for abolishing ICE and jailing its agents, describing the federal law enforcement agency as a “violent extremist group.”

Former LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa compared ICE officers to the Ku Klux Klan, and state Schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond promised to have ICE agents arrested. Former US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra vowed to “police the immigration police.“

These are the leading candidates to become governor of the most populous state in the union.

One might ask: Can they actually do any of this? The answer, rooted not in opinion but in two centuries of constitutional law, is no.

And yet the question almost never gets asked, because the performance is the point.

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 actions taken in the lawful course of their federal duties, provided the officer reasonably believed those actions were necessary to fulfill that duty.

This is not an obscure technicality. It is the foundational architecture of American federalism, and it has been settled law for longer than most of these candidates have been alive.

Remember when Democrats opposed kings? What happened to that?

Because it sure is king-like behavior for Steyer to think he can overrule the Supremacy Clause and federal law.

President Trump should absolutely do that.

Just in case he deletes it.

They don't believe in democracy. They believe in power.

They'll try.

"Same for any state law enforcement agent you might convince to do so," the user wrote. Of course, that's what will happen. Steyer will order state law enforcement to do this, and they'll be the ones who get arrested. Democrats want other people to put their bodies on the line for Democratic Party causes.

When you have no real policies, performance is all that's left.