Who is Tom Steyer? Anti-ICE billionaire in CA governor’s race faces scrutiny over detention investments
Billionaire investor Tom Steyer is positioning himself as a critic of elites and immigration enforcement in California’s governor’s race — even as his own record, including investments in private prisons...
By Fox News · Fox News
Billionaire investor Tom Steyer is positioning himself as a critic of elites and immigration enforcement in California’s governor’s race — even as his own record, including investments in private prisons tied to ICE detention, draws scrutiny. That tension is surfacing on the campaign trail, with Democratic rival Rep. Katie Porter highlighting Steyer’s past $90 million investment in a private prison firm tied to ICE facilities, while Republican candidates cast his immigration platform as extreme. Steyer made his fortune overseeing Farallon Capital, a $20 billion hedge fund that invested in coal companies and private prisons, and is now running for governor on a platform targeting corporate tax loopholes, immigration enforcement and climate policy. The California billionaire has outlined that approach most clearly on immigration, laying out a five-point plan to abolish ICE, including allowing state prosecutors to bring cases against agents and expanding legal protections for detained immigrants. Steyer calls it a plan to "put ICE in jail." DAVID MARCUS: HOW MANY SWALWELL-STYLE CREEPS ARE DEMOCRATS PROTECTING? "The true test of a leader is not who they disparage and attack, but who they defend and uplift. Donald Trump attacks and robs the most vulnerable in our society, while protecting and enriching the most powerful," the billionaire Steyer wrote in his plan on X. Under Steyer's leadership, Farallon Capital invested $90 million in CoreCivic, which runs private prisons, including two ICE detention facilities. California gubernatorial candidate Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., brought attention to Steyer's past business dealings on X, where she responded to a post by Steyer vowing to prosecute ICE. "If they're criminals, does that make the guy who invested $90M in their facilities an accessory?" Porter said, quoting Steyer. Steyer called the investment a "mistake" after pushback from progressives. "It was also a big wake-up call that I was in the wrong place, that I was i…