California Post89%
Billionaire California gov. candidate Tom Steyer caught in shocking hypocrisy: 'It was a mistake' 45%
By Titus Wu89%
4/14/2026, 7:41:35 PM
Topics: Immigration
BS Summary: This article contains 27 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Self-Serving Bias, and Framing Effect, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 31.4% saturation with 162 hits. Analysis detected 1,326 faulty-reasoning hits from 516 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 47.3% and a BS Rank of 45% (9,382 of 16,813 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 55.80% of the article peer group.
Progressive billionaire Tom Steyer has been telling California voters he wants to “abolish ICE” despite investing nearly $90 million in a company behind the state’s largest immigration detention center.
The California gubernatorial candidate has tried to swat off that criticism, but in a recent interview with the Sacramento Bee, he said it was a “mistake.”
“We never had anything to do with running the company,” Steyer said.
“But it was a mistake to think that that was a place where it was decent to make money.”
Prisoners are seen inside a prison exercise yard at the California City Immigration Processing Center, the state’s newest and largest ICE prison, on March 25, 2026 in California City.
Getty Images
This is who Californians may choose to be their Governor.
Tom Seyer.
Epic levels of cringe. pic.twitter.com/yJ3HHNPTF8
— Spitfire (@RealSpitfire) April 14, 2026
Steyer founded a hedge fund named Farallon Capital Management in 1986.
Under his management, the fund put money into CoreCivic, which runs private prisons.
Farallon’s shares in the company was valued at $89.1 million at one point.
Now, the company runs five facilities in California, according to its website.
At least two of them house people detained by federal immigration agents — one near San Diego and another in Kern County.
Steyer eventually left Farallon and sold his stake in the hedge fund in 2012.
The candidate’s ties to CoreCivic are coming under increased scrutiny by the left.
After the implosion of U.S.
Rep.
Eric Swalwell’s campaign this weekend, Steyer is now one of two leading Democratic competitors set to swoop up most of Swalwell’s voters and surge in the polls.
“Before he was a progressive, he made millions off of companies that operate ICE detention centers, that operate private prisons that incarcerated young children,” state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said in an interview with an influencer late March.
Ads have bombarded televisions highlighting his link.
The billionaire has aired ads trying to tell viewers that those other ads are false, Politico reported.
“Those investments were 20 years ago, and I left my firm over a decade ago and pledged most of my earnings to charity,” Steyer said in his hitback.
Regardless, Steyer is still seeing momentum.
A poll dropped Tuesday, conducted April 8 to 10, showed him leading the entire field at 21%.
California gubernatorial candidate Tom Steyer REUTERS
Steyer has framed his regret being involved with CoreCivic as a wake-up call that led him to walk away from the hedge fund industry.
He said it also led to his work advocating against mass incarceration.
“It was also a big wake-up call that I was in the wrong place, that I was in a business that was taking me to places I absolutely didn’t want to go,” Steyer said at a March town hall.
“And there’s a reason I walked away from that business and walked away from a ton of money.”
Candidates aren’t letting up on their attacks against Steyer as they attempt to link him with ICE.
Analysis
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