Democrats are vowing to resist President Donald Trump’s sweeping deportation agenda by promoting policies to bar federal immigration officials from obtaining future government and law enforcement jobs.
The pledges from progressive candidates seeking higher office go further than the party’s growing calls to “abolish ICE” or to slash its funding. Instead, they are warning of personal repercussions for Trump-era Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and deterring recruits from accepting lucrative sign-on bonuses.
“The way I see it is, if you work for a fascist, forget about ever working for the state,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who’s running for governor in November, told the Washington Examiner. “No one is holding a gun to their heads and saying, ‘You have to go out and terrorize people in the community.’ This is a choice, at this point, to stay employed with ICE.”
Swalwell is pledging to use his would-be executive powers to effectively blacklist ICE agents from any of the state’s nearly 250,000 government roles by conditioning state grants to not employ former ICE officers, a threat that would also apply to local police departments.
“You have to go on offense against these guys, or we’re just constantly reacting,” Swalwell added. “I want to get their attention and change their behavior.”
His proposal extends beyond that of some Democratic congressional candidates seeking to prohibit ICE officers from getting other law enforcement jobs within their states or at other federal agencies.
In Illinois, state Sen. Laura Fine, who’s running to succeed retiring longtime Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), has a similar bill to prevent those who have recently joined ICE from going to other law enforcement positions in the state.
“When Washington won’t protect my district, I will,” Fine said in a campaign video, citing the ICE killing of Renee Good in Minnesota and other violent encounters with protesters across the country.
Maryland Del. Adrian Boafo, running to replace retiring longtime Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), has floated the “ICE Breaker Act of 2026.” It would prohibit ICE agents from joining any police force in the Old Line State and wants similar legislation at the federal level.
“Why? Because they are not trained, they are not qualified, and Marylanders deserve people who will protect them,” Boafo posted to social media.
The proposals from the state lawmakers would apply only to those who joined ICE in Trump’s second term, potentially playing an active part in the president’s crackdown on illegal immigration. Local law enforcement departments in Illinois and Maryland have condemned such proposals. Swalwell’s warning, meanwhile, extends to anyone at ICE who hasn’t already left the agency.
“People who get onto the ICE force now know exactly what they’re getting into, and that is unacceptable within my community,” Fine said.
ICE has faced mounting scrutiny over officer training and use-of-force tactics against demonstrators over the past year as the department rapidly doubled in size with more than 12,000 new agents, in part thanks to $30 billion for staff and deportations from Trump’s tax law last summer.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons previously told the Washington Examiner that the administration shortened training to six days a week for eight weeks, or 48 days of active training. Recruits with law enforcement backgrounds can be fast-tracked even further. But in some cases, new hires without such experience were dispatched to field offices without proper training.
Vice President JD Vance, who travelled to Minneapolis on Thursday to address escalating tensions with federal immigration officials, told the Washington Examiner the administration will take disciplinary action “when justified” against ICE officers who make “mistakes,” a departure from previous claims that federal authorities maintained “absolute immunity.”
Meanwhile, Democrats are facing renewed schisms over how to combat ICE and its tactics that many accuse of being overly aggressive and, at times, illegal. A faction is recycling calls to “abolish ICE,” while others, wary of overstepping public disapproval, advocate in support of reforms.
Swalwell was among the vast majority of House Democrats who opposed a homeland security spending bill on Thursday ahead of another government funding deadline next week, but it still advanced to the GOP-led Senate. Republican concessions to cut $115 million from ICE and implement new oversight policies following Good’s death failed to win over Democrats. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, opposed the bill despite having negotiated and defended it just days earlier.
WHERE 2028 DEMOCRATS STAND ON ABOLISHING ICE
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), a member of the Senate’s centrist “Mod Squad,” has gone a different direction than the “abolish ICE” crowd. Cortez Masto has proposed redirecting $75 billion in ICE funding from Trump’s tax law to local police departments nationwide.
“My bill redirects funding from ICE’s massive expansion and puts that money where it will actually reduce crime, back into local law enforcement, while preserving ICE’s regular annual funding,” Cortez Masto wrote in a recent MS NOW op-ed.
