Rep. Eric Swalwell’s (D-CA) bid to be California’s next governor took another hit over the weekend as he has now been accused of violating immigration and employment laws to keep is live-in nanny in the U.S. — including paying her with campaign funds while she lacked work authorization.
That according two recently filed complaints, one with the Department of Labor and the other with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS,) the New York Post reported on Saturday.
The complaint filed Tuesday with the Department of Labor claims that Swalwell and his wife, Brittany Swalwell, lied to keep their babysitter Amanda Barbosa employed, according to the Post’s exclusive account.
In a separate complaint filed in February with DHS by a California activist filmmaker, Swalwell is accused of paying his nanny with campaign funds for approximately two years while she allegedly did not have valid work authorization.
“Barbosa appears in numerous social media photos with the Swalwell family throughout 2023 and 2024, indicating continued close association and ongoing childcare responsibilities despite the absence of known lawful work authorization,” the DHS complaint states.
The report by the Post follows calls for the lawmaker to drop his campaign for governor after allegations by former staffers emerged last week of sexual assault and misconduct, allegations that Swalwell denied on Friday.
Swalwell first hired Barbosa in 2021 after she came to the U.S. from Brazil on an au pair visa, according to the Post’s report. She was paid $3,914 in campaign funds in 2021 and received $46,930 in 2022, according to the tabloid’s reporting of Federal Election Commission data.
Swalwell began the process of sponsoring Barbosa for a green card in December 2022 as her visa was set to expire, according to a labor certification application reviewed by the New York tabloid.
Barbosa later enrolled at a community college. Under student visa rules, she was not allowed to work off campus, according to the newspaper’s account.
However, the tabloid reported and published social media photos that show Barbosa interacting with the lawmaker’s children at family events throughout 2023 and 2024.
According to the Post:
Social media photos from her since-deleted Facebook account show Barbosa caring for the kids at a variety of family events over the next two years, even being so bold as posting photos at the annual White House picnic in 2023 and 2024, where she’s holding up the youngest child, then two, in her arms while sporting a blue sundress.
FEC records reviewed by the Post show $52,262 in campaign expenses for “childcare” were written off to Swalwell himself.
“The complaint alleges that was a fraudulent workaround to keep Barbosa off the books while she wasn’t authorized to work in the US.,” according to the tabloid.
The labor certification was eventually approved in 2024, the Department of Labor told the Post.
The Department of Labor told The Post the labor certification was approved in 2024. In 2025, Barbosa “was back on the books,” according to the Post, receiving $38,905 in campaign funds from Swalwell, according to FEC data.
Swalwell is already under investigation by the FEC for spending more than $200,000 in campaign funds on personal babysitting based on a complaint filed to the agency in February, according to California activist filmmaker Gilbert who also filed the complaint.
“It’s a brazen disregard for the law. He’s harboring and employing an illegal,” Gilbert told the Post.
Swalwell’s campaign was already reeling at the end of last week after four women reported acts of sexual assault and misconduct, including one former staffer who claims Swalwell raped her in a 2024 in a luxury hotel in New York while she was drunk.
Swalwell has denied those allegations following calls to drop out of the race by prominent Democrats, including minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and former speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
“They are absolutely false,” Swalwell said of the allegations in a social media post Friday. “They did not happen. They have never happened. And I will fight them with everything that I have.”
The U.S. District Attorney in Manhattan announced Saturday it is investigating the alleged assault in 2024 of a former staffer when she reportedly was heavily intoxicated and unable to consent.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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