Chad Bianco, the Republican frontrunner in California's gubernatorial race, is facing new scrutiny after interviews from 2025 resurfaced in which he advocated creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants living in the state.
The position, laid out across a November 2025 interview with the Southern California-based group Pastura California and an April 2025 podcast appearance with host Britt Mayer, places Bianco squarely in territory that has ended Republican campaigns before. And for good reason.
Bianco's argument follows a familiar script. Daily Caller reports that he acknowledged that illegal immigration is a problem, blamed Washington for decades of inaction, and then arrived at the same destination every amnesty advocate reaches: the people are already here, so we have to make it work.
"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 then the line that matters most:
"And now we have to give a path to citizenship to the ones that are here."
He framed it as compassion married to pragmatism, arguing that if illegal immigrants "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." He drew a line at criminals, saying those who break the law "got to be sent back." But for the rest, Bianco pledged to use the governor's office to lobby Congress and the president, even enlisting Florida and Texas in the effort.
"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."
Conservatives should recognize this melody. They've been hearing it for decades.
In 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed the Immigration Reform and Control Act, offering a one-time path to legalization for approximately 3 million illegal immigrants who resided in the U.S. before 1982, including special provisions for seasonal agricultural workers. The deal was supposed to be a grand bargain: amnesty now, enforcement forever.
The amnesty happened. The enforcement never did. The border remained porous, the visa system remained broken, and within a generation, the illegal population had multiplied several times over. The 1986 act stands as one of the clearest cautionary tales in modern conservative politics. A "one-time" amnesty became the precedent for every future demand.
Bianco's own words echo this pattern with eerie precision. He told interviewers that politicians have used immigration as an election-cycle promise for 50 years:
"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."
He's right that politicians have failed to fix the system. He's wrong that the solution is to reward the failure with citizenship for those who exploited it.
Bianco's position on sanctuary state policies reveals a deeper tension. He told the Daily Caller News Foundation that California's sanctuary state status "must absolutely be removed" and that he is "completely against amnesty." He added that every person here illegally who violates the law "must be returned to the country they came from. Zero exceptions."
But in the interviews, he simultaneously argued against local law enforcement cooperating with federal immigration authorities on the ground, saying he didn't want patrol deputies involved in immigration enforcement because it might discourage illegal immigrants from reporting crimes.
"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."
This is the same logic that built California's sanctuary apparatus in the first place. Former Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 54 in 2017, designating California a "sanctuary state" and limiting state and local law enforcement involvement in federal immigration enforcement. The justification then was identical: protecting vulnerable communities from deportation fears.
So Bianco wants to:
These positions don't coexist. They collide. A path to citizenship for people who entered the country illegally is amnesty, regardless of what label you attach to it. And shielding illegal immigrants from federal enforcement at the local level is the functional core of sanctuary policy, whether or not the statute bearing that name remains on the books.
When the Daily Caller News Foundation reached Bianco for comment, he attempted to reframe his position considerably. He said those "who were here legally, who for whatever reason are now not, must have a civilized way of remedying their situation." He also accused rival Republican candidates of spreading "lies and misinformation."
"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."
The problem is that the interviews speak for themselves. Bianco didn't limit his path-to-citizenship proposal to people with expired legal status. He explicitly said it didn't matter whether people "came across illegally into the country — legally or not." That's not a nuanced position about visa overstays. That's a blanket offer.
California certifies over 40,000 H-2A positions for temporary agricultural work in a single fiscal year. The state has massive, legitimate labor needs. Nobody seriously disputes that. But legitimate labor needs are served by legal visa programs, not by retroactively blessing illegal entry.
Bianco correctly identified the problem when he said the real issue is "unfettered immigration into a country that is a welfare state" where people come "for free stuff." He's right. But his proposed solution, granting citizenship to those who came precisely under those conditions, doesn't solve the incentive structure. It reinforces it. Every amnesty signals to the next wave that if you get in and wait long enough, the rules will bend.
California Republicans have been wandering in the political wilderness for a generation. The temptation to soften on immigration in a state with one of the largest illegal immigrant populations in the country is understandable as electoral math. But the GOP didn't start winning again nationally by moving left on the border. It won by getting serious about it.
Bianco says he wants to fight failed progressive agendas. On immigration, he's running on one.
