SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom said he does not support abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a week after a federal agent fatally shot a woman in Minnesota, sparking mass protests and reigniting a national debate about how to rein in the agency.

“I disagree,” Newsom told conservative pundit Ben Shapiro on a Thursday episode of the “This Is Gavin Newsom” podcast. Shapiro asked if Newsom agreed with New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who earlier this week tied the expiration of Affordable Care Act subsidies to a massive budget increase for ICE: “I want everybody to understand, the cuts to your health care are what’s paying for this…You get screwed over to pay a bunch of thugs in the street that are shooting mothers in the face.”

Last week, ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good as she drove away from an anti-ICE demonstration in Minneapolis. Federal officials defended the shooting, claiming without evidence that Good was a “domestic terrorist” and had tried to “ram” Ross with her car.

Multiple eyewitnesses, videos, and local and state officials disputed that, and residents have protested as federal agents have continued to pour into the liberal city, conducting traffic stops, detaining people and shooting an additional person after Ross shot and killed Good.

The shooting has sparked questions about whether lawmakers should make it easier to sue ICE agents after they kill someone. Six federal prosecutors resigned after the U.S. Department of Justice directed them to investigate Good’s widow. President Donald Trump threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would let him use military troops to quell protests.

In July, Congress passed the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” which allocated ICE an extra $75 billion in funding to escalate deportation efforts while cutting federal funds for states that went toward public benefits like health care and food assistance.

Democrats plotting a political comeback in the November midterms have tried to capitalize on the public’s growing negative perception of ICE while avoiding the pitfalls of the unsuccessful “Defund the Police” movement that ignited in 2020 following the death of George Floyd.

Newsom, who has teased a potential run for president in 2028, told Shapiro he supports “comprehensive immigration reform,” but did not offer more specifics, a vague stance he has maintained throughout his political career.

As mayor of San Francisco, Newsom required police to report undocumented children charged with violent crimes to ICE. He later said in 2018 it was a regrettable compromise to protect San Francisco’s sanctuary city status following a high-profile shooting in which Edwin Ramos, an undocumented Salvadoran gang member, shot and killed a family of three after mistaking them for rival gang members.

Newsom told Shapiro he supports maintaining California’s sanctuary status, which means the state does not cooperate with investigations into undocumented residents.

The movement dates back to the 1980s, when cities like Berkeley welcomed Central American asylees fleeing civil wars in countries like El Salvador, where the U.S. supported a military dictatorship.

Newsom cited research showing sanctuary cities are not more violent than non-sanctuary cities: “I think it’s important to establish, because it’s not well-established, sanctuary jurisdictions have lower crime rates than non-sanctuary jurisdictions. So this notion that it somehow increases crime is also, I think, contradicted on the basis of the facts.

”He also boasted to Shapiro that California cooperates with ICE to prosecute “dangerous criminals,” and that he has vetoed “multiple” legislative efforts to further limit state cooperation with the agency.

“When it comes to the issues of violent criminals, when it comes to felons, people that are being released from the largest state system in the United States of America, California cooperates,” Newsom said.

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