The ban on employment would apply to those who are actively involved in arresting and deporting people between Jan. 20, 2025, and Jan. 20, 2029 — the duration of President Donald Trump‘s second term — and would disqualify them from future employment as a police officer, peace officer, public school teacher or civil servant, among other jobs.

“I am introducing a bill today that draws a moral line here in California. We’re calling it like we see it, like we feel it, and respectfully, the GTFO ICE Bill — in other words, Get the Feds Out,” said Assemblymember Mark González, D-Los Angeles, apparently playing off another acronym that normally involves an expletive.

The official text of the proposed bill was not yet available on Friday, Feb. 6, but González, who is co-introducing the legislation with Speaker Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, said people who engage in permissible law enforcement activities as outlined under California’s sanctuary state law, known as Senate Bill 54, would be exempt from his proposed employment ban. (An example of an exemption would be if a law enforcement agent arrested a violent, convicted offender.)

The intent of the bill, he said, is to bar future public employment for agents who are on the ground and actively rounding up and arresting people as part of Trump’s mass deportation program.

“The message is very simple: If you choose to terrorize communities instead of serving them, California will not reward you with a public paycheck,” González said during a news conference.

González said details of the bill are still being worked out and hasn’t decided whether the restriction on future public employment in California should be a lifetime ban.

The news conference was held outside the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. The location was no accident.

It was there in 1942 that Japanese Americans were ordered to report and be transported to internment camps during World War II.

It was also there that federal agents carried out an immigration enforcement operation last August as Gov. Gavin Newsom led a kickoff rally in support of Proposition 50, the congressional redistricting measure which voters ultimately passed.

State Sen. María Elena Durazo, D-Los Angeles, who is considering signing on as a co-author of the proposed legislation, said since Trump returned to office, “immigration enforcement has transformed into something unrecognizable — militarized authoritarian force that operates without warrants, without accountability, without any sense of humanity.”

Similar legislation was introduced last month by Assemblymember Anamarie Ávila Farías, a Democrat from the Bay Area.

Her bill would disqualify someone from becoming a peace officer or working in school settings — as a teacher, principal, superintendent or other administrative positions, for example — if they worked for ICE between Sept. 1, 2025, and Jan. 20, 2029, or for corrections departments in Alabama or Georgia between Jan. 1, 2020, and Jan. 1, 2026.

Democrats in the Legislature are pushing a number of immigration-related bills this year.

The Senate recently advanced legislation that would make it easier for people to sue federal immigration officials if their civil rights are violated.

Sen. Tony Strickland — who, along with the rest of his GOP colleagues, voted against S.B. 747, the No Kings Act passed last month to make it easier to sue federal officials — criticized the effort at the time of the vote as “a little bit more about politics and a little less about policy.”

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For communities in Southern California, the chief consequence of the Biden-Harris border crisis is the explosion of fentanyl. The fentanyl crisis is ripping families apart, killing over 200 Americans per day and serving as the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-45.

And like many other problems we face, our leading adversary Communist China is the main culprit. As laid out in a recent report, the Chinese Communist Party is responsible for manufacturing, shipping, and profiting off of fentanyl. Our adversary takes advantage of an open southern border to funnel fentanyl into the U.S.

The CCP and Mexican drug cartels profit as Southern California families suffer.

The worsening fentanyl crisis calls for action. I’m proud to have recently been appointed to a newly formed committee in Congress committed to finding solutions to stopping the flow of fentanyl.

The Fentanyl Working Group, a product of the Select Committee on Communist China, is committed to pursuing new enforcement measures to restrict trafficking while strengthening or imposing sanctions on foreign entities involved in the fentanyl trade. While the potential solutions are multi-faceted, the most immediate action to be taken is clear. Secure the border.

Our region sees this issue firsthand. I frequently listen to horror stories from our law enforcement officials regarding the flow of deadly drugs into our communities and households.

The volume of narcotics coming across our border has dramatically increased over the past four years. According to congressional testimony from Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes, seizures of fentanyl powder increased 676% from the time President Biden took office through 2023. Seizures of fentanyl pills have increased nearly 4,00%.

The materials used to produce fentanyl – known as precursors – are manufactured in China, smuggled across our border, and introduced to our communities via drug cartels. Even more scary, these precursor chemicals often enter the U.S. via our ports in Los Angeles, then are driven down to Mexico and returned to our streets as fully potent narcotics.

Unfortunately, the Biden-Harris Administration does not take the fentanyl crisis seriously – even as family after family suffers the loss of loved ones. If it was on their radar, they would have already shut down the border and with it, points of entry for drug smuggling. Their own policies upon taking office repealed proven, effective solutions for reducing illegal immigration.

Worldwide, bad actors are taking note of America’s porous Southern border. These are the consequences of policies that fail to discourage illegal immigration, at the expense of those seeking to come to the U.S. legally.

Make no mistake, both the President and Vice President own this crisis. Since President Biden put VP Harris in charge of the border early in his term, illegal immigration and fentanyl trafficking have surged.

As an immigrant myself who now represents many first-generation Americans in Congress, I will continue to push the Biden-Harris administration to encourage legal immigration while cracking down on illegal border crossings.

Many of my constituents and I came here legally, worked hard, and fought for the American dream. But illegal immigration disrespects the rule of law as well as those seeking to come here the right way. And as we continue to learn, an unsecure border ensures the spread of harmful substances like fentanyl throughout our communities.

Enough is enough. It’s time to secure the border, protect Southern California families, and hold those preying on our communities accountable.

Michelle Steel represents California’s 45th congressional district and serves on the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the U.S. and the CCP.

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