Steve Hilton, a Republican candidate for California Governor, is vowing to support Donald Trump’s immigration policies and if elected will not “obstruct” the implementation of federal immigration laws.
The 52-year-old businessman and one-time Fox News host is running on a number of populist issues including lower taxes, less government spending, and immigration.
As to his stance on immigration, Hilton says he is all for legal immigration, but finds illegal immigration to be a strike against the best interests of legal migrants, according to ACoM.
Hilton also pushed back on claims that there aren’t any Americans who will take jobs now held by migrants. “’I don’t think it’s a reasonable thing to have a system where we say we can’t find Americans to do these jobs, so we have to import labor from other countries illegally, while we have millions of Californians who are not working,” he said.
Hilton said he wants to be known as “the candidate of the legal immigrant community for the legal immigrant community,” and pledges to reverse course from California’s current position on migrants.
“The difference you will see with me as governor is that instead of the confrontational approach, which has led to some of these scenes that I don’t think any of us want to see — as we saw in Los Angeles last summer, or even worse, in Minneapolis earlier this year,” Hilton said. “We will have an approach which is that all the laws must be peacefully enforced, and we will not obstruct the implementation of federal immigration law.”
He went on to explain that “Immigration policy is not a responsibility of the governor,” and said that a governor has but to stand back and allow the federal government to implement its policies.
Hilton pointed out that the 2026 election clearly came in as a mandate for Trump’s immigration policy and Democrats shouldn’t try to nullify that national election.
“One candidate, one party won all the swing states,” he continued, “a popular vote on a very clear platform on immigration policy, and the administration is now implementing the verdict of the people, and the question for the next governor of California is: Are you going to actively work against the results of the 2024 election when it comes to immigration policy or not? I don’t think that’s even an option, realistically, if you want to be true to your principles of upholding the Constitution and the rule of law, to actually obstruct the implementation of federal law.”
He noted that the influx of illegals is unfair to legal migrants.
“What I want to achieve is to restore that ladder of opportunity for every legal immigrant family,” he said. “I’ve lived the California dream, and the simple reason I’m running is that that dream is just not there for most people.”
He also blasted farmworkers unions for purposefully slowing the growth and adoption of more agricultural automation.
Finally, Hilton said that illegal immigration also puts a serious strain on California’s healthcare system, and said, “I think it’s not reasonable to ask California taxpayers to pay money from their taxes to subsidize health care for citizens of other countries.”
He suggested that California should stay closer to what benefits the federal government allows for migrants instead of having the state pile on extras. And he cited Democrats such as Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer “who have made it clear that when it comes to federal law, it’s against the law for citizens of other countries to be receiving health care benefits other than that prescribed by Congress, and that’s the position I support for California.
See Hilton’s full interview here:
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