{"id":65339,"date":"2026-02-04T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T13:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/california-dems-lash-out-at-ice-during-gubernatorial-debate\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T08:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T13:00:16","slug":"california-dems-lash-out-at-ice-during-gubernatorial-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/california-dems-lash-out-at-ice-during-gubernatorial-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"California Dems lash out at ICE during gubernatorial debate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats participating in Tuesday night&#8217;s California gubernatorial debate unanimously condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with some calling for it to be abolished outright.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;People are afraid to even see a doctor. When I am governor, I will restore <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/health\/health-care\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">universal health care<\/a> for all, including undocumented immigrants in the state of California because we know health care is a right,&#8221; said State Schools Superintendent Tony Thurmond.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I will work with Congress until we <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/democrats-dilemma-progressive-push-abolish-ice-sparks-fresh-divide-party\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">abolish ICE.<\/a> We [will] create a pathway to citizenship, a better California is possible,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>Thurmond&#8217;s message was echoed across the stage in San Francisco, from billionaire Tom Steyer to former Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/media\/borders-state-senator-wants-ice-totally-torn-down\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>BORDERS STATE SENATOR WANTS ICE TO BE &#8216;TOTALLY TORN DOWN&#8217;<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This country was built by immigrants. This state doesn&#8217;t work <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/immigration\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">without immigration<\/a>. Of course, we need to have a fair, just system, but this is the exact opposite of that,&#8221; Steyer told the audience.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You really can&#8217;t reform an organization which is absolutely wrong and criminal from top to bottom,&#8221; he continued.<\/p>\n<p>Becerra meanwhile vowed he would &#8220;police the immigration police.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/trump-era-ice-agents-targeted-immorality-dem-trying-blacklist-them-cop-classroom-jobs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TRUMP-ERA ICE AGENTS TARGETED FOR \u2018IMMORALITY\u2019 BY DEM TRYING TO BLACKLIST THEM FROM COP, CLASSROOM JOBS<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The two California mayors on the stage, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and ex-Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, fell short of calling for ICE to be abolished outright. Mahan accused federal agents of threatening people&#8217;s &#8220;rights and civil liberties.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Villaraigosa was more aggressive, comparing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/crime\/police-and-law-enforcement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ICE officers<\/a> to the &#8220;Ku Klux Klan,&#8221; describing them as &#8220;dressed from head to toe, all covered up like the Ku Klux Klan with assault weapons, flash bang grenades, beating up on women, children and innocents.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Former California state controller Betty Yee was the most muted on the issue, saying she encouraged migrants and protesters to take a &#8220;know your rights&#8221; training and claiming that immigrants in the state are taxpayers.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When people understand that immigrants are such a contributor to our economy and to our society here in California \u2026 and that&#8217;s what we&#8217;re going to build together. We are a sanctuary state,&#8221; Yee said. &#8220;Ice has no business coming in and tearing up communities, tearing up families.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday&#8217;s debate was the second of the state&#8217;s democratic primary race, with the primary election scheduled for June 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats participating in Tuesday night&#8217;s California gubernatorial debate unanimously condemned Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with some calling for it to be abolished outright. &#8220;People are afraid to even see a doctor. When I am governor, I will restore universal health care for all, including undocumented immigrants in the state of California because we know health &#8230; <a title=\"California Dems lash out at ICE during gubernatorial debate\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/04\/california-dems-lash-out-at-ice-during-gubernatorial-debate\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about California Dems lash out at ICE during gubernatorial debate\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}