California’s ‘GTFO’ Act Disqualifies ICE Agents from Local Public Employment

California’s proposed “GTFO Act” is exactly what it sounds like: “Get the Feds Out.” Well, that’s what they claim it means.

Assembly Bill 1896 by Assemblyman Mark González (D-Los Angeles), would bar ICE agents or Department of Homeland Security employees who participated in immigration enforcement during the second Trump administration from holding any public employment in California. Gonzalez claims ICE agents ignored “unlawful orders.”

AB 1896 “Disqualifies individuals who engaged in immigration enforcement activity between January 20, 2025, and January 20, 2029 from holding state, county, or local public employment in California, with exceptions for allowed conduct already permissible under SB 54, California’s law protecting community trust.”

Assemblyman González calls ICE agents “killers, terror instigators, and kidnappers.”

In March, the Globe reported that California Democrats were already seeking to disqualify federal immigration and DHS agents from future employment as California state or local police, or sheriffs, and prevent them from applying for tax breaks, because they oppose President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

In short, this is a retroactive and prospective bar on hiring people who participated in federal immigration enforcement work during the Trump administration for any California public job.

This is the rock-bottom state of politics in California. Democrats have nothing to offer California citizens – they already gave away all of the free stuff. So they are appealing to illegal immigrants instead, prioritizing those here illegally over legal citizens and residents of the State of California.

Federal immigration law is supreme under the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, meaning states cannot enact their own immigration codes, create conflicting criminal penalties for immigration violations, or directly regulate who may enter or remain in the country, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 in Arizona v. United States. The federal government holds primary authority over immigration and naturalization.

Apparently, Democrats have chosen take out their Trump Derangement Syndrome on federal law enforcement officers… because securing U.S. borders, protecting the American people against invasion, and guaranteeing the country protection against invasion displaces future Democrat voters and welfare recipients.

California is violating federal law with this bill, and many others.

“Immigration enforcement agents, when they invade our communities, when they kidnap neighbors, when they choose VIOLENCE over PEACE, and when they shove the cold barrel of a gun into the back of a head and execute innocent people in the streets…,” said Assemblyman González, “That is not serving the public. I am proud to stand with the Speaker, announcing legislation that says enough of this shit. We are not going to abandon my community; not ever.”

“They have been targeting people who look like me; people with brown skin,” said González.

“Masked ICE and CBP agents have forcibly abducted people off the streets with no notice, no due process, and with no regard for human rights or the law,” González claims.

He ignores that ICE agents are removing illegal immigrants, and specifically, targeting criminal illegal immigrants for deportation.

“These agents have consistently shown they are unwilling to stand up to unlawful orders, and therefore do not align with the core values of this state’s law enforcement or public employee missions.”

The “unlawful orders” González claims, is federal immigration law which supersedes state law.

“This bill will ensure killers, terror instigators, and kidnappers are not serving the good people of California.”

González knows this bill is unconstitutional and will be overturned if it makes it to the Supreme Court. But in the meantime, Democrats are trying to put a chill over all California law enforcement.

Bill analysis says:

“Since the start of President Trump’s second term, immigration enforcement agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), [ICE], and Customs and Border Protection have been ordered to carry out aggressive, unchecked, and deadly military-style raids.”

“This bill is needed as immigration enforcement agents, by virtue of their employment, have consistently shown they are unwilling to stand up to unlawful orders, and therefore do not align with the core values of this state’s law enforcement or public employee missions. [This bill] will disqualify anyone who has engaged in immigration enforcement activity from January 20, 2025, to January 20, 2029, from being employed as a state, county, or local public agency employee, including as a peace officer, with exceptions for allowed activities under [Chapter 495, Statutes of 2017 (Senate Bill 54, De Leon)] – the California Values Act…. Anyone who engages in the terrorizing, kidnapping, shooting, or killing of innocent people has shown they are not interested in serving the public interest but are instead agents of harm, hate, and substantive violence. By disqualifying them from public employment, California will continue to ensure its people are served by those with their best interest at heart. [This bill will also] have a positive impact on underserved and marginalized communities as they are primarily made up of communities of color and can be heavily immigrant. These are the same communities that have been targeted and the most heavily impacted by immigration enforcement. By ensuring that those who terrorize, kidnap, shoot, or kill in California’s communities will never get a public job here, [this] will protect them and future generations from those who do not share in California’s values.”

“My colleague and friend Assemblymember Mark González is on the front lines protecting California and Los Angeles from Trump and ICE’s chaos and abuse of power,” said Speaker Robert Rivas, co-author of AB 1896. “I’m proud to partner with him on legislation that puts ICE on notice: No one is above the law.”

Except federal immigration law is supreme, Speaker Rivas.

“The Trump Administration isn’t following the rules or respecting due process. Instead, masked agents are entering homes without warrants, terrorizing families, and creating a climate of pure fear,” said Senator Maria Elena Durazo, “They’re killing innocent people like Alex Pretti. We have a duty as a State to establish new safeguards to protect our communities and keep them safe.”

As San Luis Obispo District Attorney Dan Dow told the Globe in March about banning former ICE agents from law enforcement jobs, “This bill is nothing more than an attempt to impose an ideological test for peace officers but one that is based on work history status rather than evidence of any individual misconduct. California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training already requires a lengthy background investigation for all peace officer candidates that thoroughly screen for misconduct, bias, and ethical fitness—rendering this crude legislative presumption unnecessary. This is not a good-faith effort to ensure quality peace officers; it is a political statement opposing President Trump’s immigration enforcement.”