President Trump's historic deportation operation just hit a major milestone.
ICE agents are removing criminal illegal aliens at record pace while protecting American communities.
And Eric Swalwell got caught making this ugly threat against ICE agents.
California Democrat promises to prosecute federal agents
California Congressman Eric Swalwell announced his campaign for governor by declaring war on federal law enforcement.
During an appearance on MSNBC, Swalwell laid out his radical plan to criminally charge ICE agents doing their jobs.
"If they commit crimes they're going to be charged with crimes, if it's falsely imprisoning people, if it's kidnapping, if it's assault battery, they're going to be held accountable," Swalwell told host Jason Johnson.¹
The Democrat went even further by threatening to revoke ICE agents' driver's licenses if they refuse to unmask while conducting operations.
"If you're going to wear a mask and not identify yourself, you're not going to be eligible to drive a vehicle in California," Swalwell added.¹
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley immediately exposed the glaring flaw in Swalwell's scheme.
"In case it matters to anyone left in California, he cannot do this," Turley wrote. "The first tiny barrier to Swalwell's antebellum policies is the Supremacy Clause, which prevents states from 'interfering with or controlling the operations of the Federal Government.'"²
Since McCulloch v. Maryland in 1819, the Supreme Court has consistently struck down state laws that attempt to impede federal enforcement.
ICE agents conducting lawful deportations are protected by immunity under the Supremacy Clause.
But here's what makes Swalwell's threat particularly rich with irony.
Swalwell's history with Chinese intelligence raises questions
Eric Swalwell has no room to lecture anyone about national security threats.
A suspected Chinese spy named Christine Fang targeted Swalwell when he was a Dublin City Council member and maintained close ties to him for years.
Fang helped fundraise for Swalwell's 2014 Congressional campaign and even placed an intern in his office, according to a 2020 Axios investigation.³
The FBI gave Swalwell a defensive briefing in 2015 warning him Fang was a suspected Chinese intelligence operative.
While Swalwell claims he immediately cut ties and cooperated with authorities, he spent years refusing to answer questions about the nature of his relationship with Fang.
When Fox News asked directly if he had a sexual relationship with the suspected spy, Swalwell's office said they couldn't comment because such information might be "classified."⁴
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy cited Swalwell's ties to the Chinese operative as justification for removing him from the House Intelligence Committee in 2023.
The House Ethics Committee closed its investigation in May 2023 without finding wrongdoing, but the damage to Swalwell's credibility was done.⁵
Now Swalwell wants California voters to trust him to prosecute federal agents who are actually protecting Americans from criminal illegal aliens.
That's retreat mode disguised as resistance.
Trump's deportation operation delivers results
While Swalwell threatens federal agents, ICE is delivering historic results under President Trump's leadership.
ICE arrested more than 300,000 illegal aliens in 2025 alone, with 70% of those arrested being criminal illegal aliens with charges or convictions.⁶
The Trump administration has conducted over 1,100 arrests per day in recent weeks as ICE works toward removing dangerous criminals from American communities.⁷
ICE deportations have doubled from 600 per day in January to 1,200 per day by June 2025.⁸
Trump designated deadly cartels including MS-13, Tren de Aragua, and the Sinaloa Cartel as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, giving law enforcement enhanced tools to dismantle these criminal networks.
The administration secured the arrest and extradition of the ISIS terrorist who orchestrated the deadly Abbey Gate bombing that killed 13 American servicemembers.
Border crossings have plummeted while ICE removes the violent criminals Joe Biden allowed into the country.
Swalwell calls federal agents enforcing immigration law "kidnappers" while ICE arrests gang members, murderers, and cartel operatives.
The California Democrat wants to prosecute agents who protect Americans from the very threats his failed policies helped create.
California already issues driver's licenses to illegal immigrants under state law.
Swalwell's plan would create a bizarre system where criminal illegal aliens can legally drive in California but ICE agents enforcing federal law cannot.
That reveals everything you need to know about who Swalwell actually wants to protect.
Trump is making America safe again by removing dangerous criminals who never should have entered the country in the first place.
Swalwell's threats won't stop ICE from doing its job – but they expose which side he's really on.
¹ Pam Key, "Swalwell: As CA Gov I Will Charge ICE Agents, Take Away Their Drivers License," Breitbart, December 30, 2025.
² Jonathan Turley, "Swalwell Pledges to Arrest ICE Agents and Take Away Their Driver's Licenses," JonathanTurley.org, December 31, 2025.
³ Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian and Zach Dorfman, "Exclusive: How a suspected Chinese spy gained access to California politics," Axios, December 8, 2020.
⁴ Emily Crane and Bruce Golding, "What we know about Bay Area Rep. Eric Swalwell and the suspected Chinese spy," SFGATE, December 9, 2020.
⁵ Andrew Solender, "House Ethics Committee ends investigation into Rep. Eric Swalwell," Axios, May 24, 2023.
⁶ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, "Six Months of Keeping America Safe Under President Trump and Secretary Noem," DHS.gov, July 20, 2025.
⁷ Stef W. Kight, "New data: ICE arrests surge as agency chases Trump quota," Axios, December 4, 2025.
⁸ Ariel G. Ruiz Soto, Muzaffar Chishti, and Julia Gelatt, "A New Era of Immigration Enforcement Unfolds in the U.S. Interior and at the Border under Trump 2.0," Migration Policy Institute, October 30, 2025.