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

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

While protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions have flared throughout the state, concern about immigration has 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 farming and immigration.

Sitting with Bianco on a farm site, the interviewer asked the GOP candidate whether there would be a way to reassure seasonal workers they could continue working in the fields, as some fear being mistaken for illegal workers and deported. The interviewer also inquired whether Bianco had a plan for Americans to fill seasonal farm jobs in the future, suggesting more Future Farmers of America (FFA) classes could be added to high school curricula.

Bianco began his response by arguing that there has been a deliberate push to steer the younger generation away from the farming lifestyle, calling it “by design” and “absolutely wrong.” He advocated for expanding FFA programs in schools and described the immigration system as “broken,” calling it the second major factor contributing to the problem.

“It is completely the fault of politicians in Washington, Republicans and Democrats, because they should’ve fixed this decades ago,” Bianco said. “The real issue that we have is you cannot have immigration, unfettered immigration — and unrestricted immigration into a country that is a welfare state. That has welfare where you only are coming into the country for free stuff.”

Bianco went on to state how his family immigrated to the United States from Italy looking for jobs at the time, reflecting on how many families who immigrated to the country then were wanting to “work hard to succeed.”

“The people that are coming here now, especially illegally are coming here for free stuff. And then we are the ones that are paying for that. So the immigration system has to be fixed. We have to have a secure border. It is secure right now. But we have a major issue with people who are here illegally,” Bianco continued. “We have to fix that process.”

California has been known to heavily rely on seasonal farmworkers, many of whom are from out of the country and on 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 certified 40,758 H-2A positions in the state for temporary agricultural jobs for the fiscal year of 2023.

The GOP candidate then stated that some migrants who entered during the Biden administration came “legally,” as they were allowed into the country, but later “extended how long they could stay.”

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

“California is one of the largest immigrant populations in the country and illegal immigrant populations in the country,” Bianco said. “But we have to address it. We have to make it right. Whether they came across illegally into the country — legally or not — is irrelevant, because we allowed it to happen. So now we just have to fix it. Secure our borders. Don’t let it happen again.”

“And now we have to give a path to citizenship to the ones that are here,” he added. “We have to create a way for them to become U.S. citizens and productive, make their families great. If they truly did come here to make their lives and their families’ lives better, we have to get to a position where we allow that to happen.”

However, Bianco added, “if they’re here and they’re breaking our laws and committing crimes, they’ve got to go back. We’re not going to allow them to stay here to violate our social norms and our rules of law and victimize us. So the ones that are here illegally that are committing crimes, they’ve got to be sent back.”

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The interviewer then jumped in, stating that criminal illegal migrants should be immediately deported, adding that they shouldn’t be in the country “wasting” taxpayer money.

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

“It is our failed politicians that are not making this happen,” Bianco added. “The reason being is they use that as an election argument every single four years saying, ‘Oh, if you elect me, I’ll fix it. If you elect me, I’ll fix it. I’ll help fix it.’ It’s been 50 years and nobody’s fixed it. So you put me in position and we will absolutely make sure it will be done because we know it has to be done.”

In a second interview from April 2025, Bianco was asked by podcast host Britt Mayer to touch on California’s sanctuary state policies and its open border under the Democratic leadership, to which Bianco touched on Senate Bill 54.

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

Bianco stated that SB54 was “another lie sold to the public” because it only protects criminal illegal migrants and not those who are in the state illegally but “busting their butt to make a better life for their family.”

“Because, in the end, never has law enforcement ever cared if anybody was illegal. All we care about are you a victim or a suspect? Why did you call us?” Bianco asked. “We absolutely must — this is the fine line. I don’t want my line deputies, my patrol deputies absolutely cannot be cooperating with the federal government in immigration reform, because the people that we go to help are calling for our help. They are being victimized.”

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 will not report that 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 be only caring about who victimized that poor girl or woman or man? It doesn’t matter and how can we make sure we get that criminal off the streets and behind bars and if they’re illegal they need to be deported immediately.”

Bianco then added that his solution to California’s immigration issue would be to establish a “path for citizenship” for hard-working, non-criminal immigrants who love the country. Bianco proposed allowing them to speed up the process by serving in the military, law enforcement, agriculture, building trades or hospitality industries.

Former Republican California Gov. Ronald Reagan eventually tolerated the state’s agriculture industry hiring of illegal workers to fill labor gaps after federal work visa programs like the Bracero Program had ended.

Later, as president, Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act in 1986, offering a one-time path to legalization for approximately 3 million illegal immigrants who resided in the U.S. prior to 1982, including special provisions for seasonal agricultural workers.

In a statement provided to the Daily Caller News Foundation, Bianco said that his stance is very clear, adding immigration has been a “convoluted problem” caused by politicians. The GOP frontrunner added that it is the federal government who “must act immediately to fix a broken immigration system.”

“California Sanctuary state status must absolutely be removed. I am completely against amnesty. Every single person who is not only here illegally, but also those in the process of gaining citizenship, who violate our laws must be returned to the country they came from. Zero exceptions,” Bianco told the DCNF. “Those who were here legally, who for whatever reason are now not, must have a civilized way of remedying their situation.”

“We must stop allowing our emotions and hatred to ruin California. It’s bad enough I am fighting failed progressive agendas, now I have to fight lies and misinformation from candidates claiming to be Republicans,” Bianco added.