GOP Frontrunner Floats Path To Citizenship In California Governor Race — Sound Familiar?

Previous interviews with California Republican gubernatorial candidate Chad Bianco are resurfacing after he promised to create a path to citizenship for legal, non-criminal migrants who arrived in the state under the Biden administration.

As protests against the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have erupted across the state, concerns about immigration have remained a relatively low priority issue among California voters, according to a recent Emerson College poll. In a resurfaced November 2025 interview with Pastura California, a group of farmers and media creators based in Southern California, Bianco discussed agriculture and immigration.

Sitting with Bianco at a farm site, the interviewer asked the GOP candidate if there would be any way to reassure seasonal workers that they could continue working in the fields, as some fear being mistaken for illegal workers and deported. The interviewer also asked if Bianco had a plan for Americans to take seasonal agricultural jobs in the future, suggesting that more Future Farmers of America (FFA) courses could be added to high school curricula. (RELATED: In the scenario where two Republicans win the California jungle primary)

Bianco began his response by asserting that there has been a deliberate push to distance the younger generation from the agricultural lifestyle, calling it “intentional” and “absolutely wrong.” He advocated for the expansion of FFA programs in schools and called the immigration system “broken,” calling it the second major factor contributing to the problem.

“This is entirely the fault of Washington politicians, Republican and Democratic, because they should have fixed this problem decades ago,” Bianco said. “The real problem that we face is that you can’t have immigration, unfettered immigration – and unrestricted immigration in a country that is a welfare state. That has welfare where you only enter the country for free.”

Bianco then explained how his family immigrated to the United States from Italy in search of work at the time, reflecting on how many families then immigrated to the country who wanted to “work hard to succeed.”

“The people who are coming here now, especially illegally, are coming here for free things. And then we’re the ones paying for it. So the immigration system needs to be fixed. We need to have a secure border. It’s secure right now. But we have a major problem with people who are here illegally,” Bianco continued. “We need to fix this process.”

California is known for relying heavily on seasonal agricultural workers, many of whom come from overseas and have work visas, due to its massive production of fruits, nuts, vegetables and other high-value crops. According to data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Foreign Labor Certification, the DOL has certified 40,758 H-2A positions in the state for temporary agricultural employment for fiscal year 2023.

The GOP candidate then said some migrants who entered during the Biden administration arrived “legally” because they were allowed to enter the country but then “overstayed their stay.”

Bianco noted that because these migrants have overstayed their visas, the process needs to be fixed, and it is up to the federal government to do so.

“California has one of the largest immigrant populations in the country and one of the largest illegal immigrant populations in the country,” Bianco said. “But we have to fix it. We have to fix the situation. Whether they entered the country illegally – legally or not – doesn’t matter, because we allowed this to happen. So now we just have to fix it. Secure our borders. Don’t let this happen again.”

“And now we must open the path to citizenship for those who are here,” he added. “We need to create a way for them to become American, productive citizens, to make their families great. If they truly came here to improve their lives and the lives of their families, we need to get to a position where we allow that to happen.”

However, Bianco added, “if they are here and they are breaking our laws and committing crimes, they need to come back. We are not going to allow them to stay here to violate our social norms and our rules of law and victimize us. So those who are here illegally and committing crimes, need to be sent back.”

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The interviewer then intervened by saying that criminal illegal migrants should be immediately deported, adding that they should not be in the country “wasting” taxpayers’ money.

“Absolutely,” Bianco replied. “But as governor of California, we will fight for citizenship. And I will use my influence as the largest state and the largest state in the country on the president and on Congress. We will use Florida and Texas because they want the same things.”

“It is our failed politicians who are not allowing this to happen,” Bianco added. “The reason is they use this as an election argument every four years saying, ‘Oh, if you elect me, I’ll fix things. If you elect me, I’ll fix things. I’ll help fix them.’ It’s been 50 years and no one has fixed it. So you’ve put me in a position and we will absolutely make sure this gets done because we know it needs to be done.

In a second interview from April 2025, podcast host Britt Mayer asked Bianco to address California’s sanctuary state policies and its open border under Democratic leadership, to which Bianco brought up Senate Bill 54.

In 2017, former California Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 54, designating California a “sanctuary state”, which significantly limits the participation of state and local law enforcement agencies in federal immigration enforcement activities.

Bianco said SB54 was “another lie sold to the public” because it only protects criminal illegal immigrants and not those who are in the state illegally but are “busting their butts to make life better for their families.”

“Because at the end of the day, law enforcement never cared if someone was illegal. All we care about is are you a victim or a suspect? Why did you call us?” » asked Bianco. “We absolutely have to do it: that’s the limit. I don’t want my line deputies, my patrol deputies to be completely unable to cooperate with the federal government on immigration reform, because the people we help are asking for our help. They are victims.”

He said that if individuals are afraid to report crimes because “they’re afraid of being deported themselves,” then law enforcement is unable to protect real victims.

“If a woman is raped and she doesn’t report it to law enforcement because she believes she’s going to be deported, then we are failing as an absolute country,” Bianco added. “Because we should only care who victimized this poor girl, woman or man? It doesn’t matter and how can we make sure that we take this criminal off the streets and behind bars and if he is illegal he should be removed immediately.”

Bianco then added that his solution to California’s immigration problem would be to establish a “path to citizenship” for hard-working, non-criminal immigrants who love the country. Bianco offered to allow them to expedite the process by serving in the military, law enforcement, agriculture, construction trades or hospitality.

California’s former Republican governor, Ronald Reagan, ultimately tolerated the hiring of illegal workers by the state’s agricultural industry to fill labor shortages after the end of federal work visa programs like the Bracero program.

Later, as president, Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986, providing a single path to legalization for approximately 3 million illegal immigrants who resided in the United States before 1982, including special provisions for seasonal agricultural workers.

In a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation, Bianco said his position was very clear, adding that immigration was a “convoluted problem” caused by politicians. The Republican Party front-runner added that it is the federal government that “must act immediately to fix a broken immigration system.”

“California’s sanctuary state status absolutely needs to be removed. I am totally against amnesty. Anyone who is not only here illegally, but anyone who is in the process of obtaining citizenship, who is violating our laws needs to be sent back to the country they came from. Zero exceptions,” Bianco told the DCNF. “Those who were here legally and for whatever reason are no longer here must find a civilized solution to remedy their situation.”

“We need to stop letting our emotions and hatred ruin California. It’s bad enough that I’m fighting failed progressive programs, now I have to fight the lies and misinformation from candidates claiming to be Republicans,” Bianco added.

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