Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco (R) is vowing to support a “path to citizenship” for millions of illegal aliens in the United States if elected governor of California, going as far as to say he would lobby President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress to pass such an amnesty.

During two recent interviews circulating online, Bianco announced his support for providing naturalized American citizenship to millions of illegal aliens in the U.S., so long as they have not been convicted of a crime.

“My family immigrated here from Italy and they came here for jobs. That’s what things were here for. You came here [for] a job, you said that America is the greatest country in the world and I want to be an American and you bust your behind to make sure that you provide for your family. That’s what it was then. And the people that came here knew they had to work hard to succeed,” Bianco told Pastura California in a November 2025 interview:

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, some of them were here legally, they were allowed into the country legally, but they’ve extended how long they could stay. [Emphasis added]

We have to fix that process and its up to the federal government to do it. As the governor of California, the largest state in the country, I will work with the governor of Texas, the governor of Florida, the other two largest states in the country, because we have the, arguably, we do, we have, California is one of the largest immigrant populations in the country, and illegal immigrant populations in the country. 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. 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 family’s life better, we have to get to a position where we allow that to happen. If they’re here and they’re breaking our laws and committing crimes, they 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. [Emphasis added]

Biano continued, saying he would use his influence as governor of California to lobby Trump and Republican members of Congress on amnesty for illegal aliens.

“I, 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 and we will utilize Florida and Texas because they want the same things,” Bianco said:

It is our failed politicians that are not making this happen and 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” … it’s been 50 years and nobody’s fixed it. So you put in the position and we will absolutely make sure it will be done because we know it has to be done and we have to start working for the people that are here trying to make California great and we have to make their lives easier. [Emphasis added]

Breitbart News reached out to Bianco’s campaign for comment on the remarks.

In a statement, Bianco said he has “been very clear” on immigration and said that “both sides of the political aisle” have twisted his comments “to benefit them.”

“Immigration is being made into a political tool, and California residents are the pawns,” Bianco told Breitbart News.

In California, waves of high levels of immigration, as well as President Ronald Reagan’s amnesty in 1986, have played a major role in turning the state into a Democrat stronghold.

For instance, in 1980, California’s foreign-born population totalled 3.58 million. At the time, California routinely voted for Republicans, backing GOP presidential candidates in several elections from 1952 to 1988.

Following the 1986 Reagan amnesty, where the majority of illegal aliens legalized resided in California, the state’s foreign-born population has grown dramatically — hitting almost 11 million by 2024 — and has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1988.

During an interview with podcast host Britt Mayer from April of last year, Bianco suggested that he did not want his deputies at the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), claiming that illegal aliens may be less likely to report crimes if they believe they, themselves, are at risk of being deported.

“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,” Bianco said. “They are being victimized. And if they are afraid to report crime because they’re afraid to be deported themselves for being a victim.”

“If a woman is raped and she will not report that to law enforcement because she believes she is going to be deported, then we are failing as an absolute country because we should be only caring about who victimized that poor girl or woman or man, 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 said.

Bianco, in the Britt Mayer Show interview, also reiterated his support for a path to citizenship for illegal aliens across the U.S.

“The bottom line is that we absolutely must have a path to citizenship for people that are here,” Bianco said.

Bianco told Breitbart News that he believes “every person who is in jail for victimizing Californians should be deported” and said that “sheriffs operating jails should be cooperating with the federal government.”

“The sanctuary policies prevent that from happening and force the release of criminals back into our neighborhoods,” Bianco said. “Sanctuary policies place sheriffs at risk of criminal prosecution and removal from office because of ridiculous sanctuary state laws. The vast majority of residents, including immigrants, want that to end.”

Bianco, in his statement to Breitbart News, said again that “the threat of deportation can not be used by criminals to prevent the reporting of crime.”

“A child being molested under threat of deportation should not be afraid of turning toward a deputy for protection,” Bianco said. “With all that said, sanctuary state policies need to be repealed. They harm our communities. As California governor, I will gladly work with other governors to pressure Congress to fix a broken immigration system.”

Data from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) has debunked claims, often used by sanctuary city proponents, that immigrants are less likely to report crime. In reality, the data show that in every major crime category, only about one percent of immigrants who did not report a crime said they did not report such crimes because of fear of the authorities.

“There is no evidence in the NCVS data that crimes against immigrants are reported to police at lower rates than crimes against the native-born, indicating that the routine, even active, cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities that takes place in most jurisdictions does not suppress crime reporting by immigrants,” an analysis of the NCVS data from the Center for Immigration Studies details.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.