California Senator Adam Schiff posted on the social media platform X, featuring him speaking against the Trump administration’s immigration and enforcement tactics, arguing that Americans are now witnessing practices he never expected to see in the United States.
At one point, he even compares people being stopped and asked for identification to something out of the 1930s, writing in the post’s caption, “Checking people’s papers randomly on the street is stuff of the 1930s.“
In the video, Senator Adam Schiff appears to be speaking to an audience within a school auditorium. You can hear him say, “I never thought I would see a day in this country where people were required to carry their identification papers, or they would be questioned based on how they looked or where they worked, or their accent.”
These comments come amid heightened scrutiny of immigration enforcement across California and the rest of the country. Newly released ICE data analyzed by the San Francisco Chronicle shows that nearly 50,000 arrests have been made in California since President Donald Trump returned to office, while roughly 4,300 were recorded in the state during July 2026 alone.
His concerns about identification also aren’t coming out of nowhere. Schiff and several other senators have previously raised questions about ICE’s use of facial recognition technology after videos appeared to show federal agents scanning people’s faces on the street to identify them, including an encounter in which two young men were stopped, and one was scanned after saying he didn’t have his ID with him.
Schiff then ends his post with, “Our democracy is in crisis, but we will get through this. This too shall pass.“
Comments and Reactions to Adam Schiff’s Warning About Street ID Checks
Judging by the replies to Schiff’s post, plenty of people weren’t convinced by his comparison. One commenter defended immigration enforcement as a whole, writing, “Our American Democracy elected Donald J. Trump twice to deport illegal trespassers according to laws. Not randomly, as a Senator you should know the law: 8 U.S. Code § 1325 – Improper entry by alien.”
Others immediately brought COVID-era vaccine requirements into the argument. One person accused Democrats of hypocrisy over identification requirements, writing, “Are you [expletive] serious??? This is deranged even for you. Did you forget about the vaccine papers all you bottom feeders were pushing??? If not for hypocrisy you’d have nothing to talk about.”
As the clip continues to go viral on social media, more and more people are leaving behind their thoughts and opinions in the comments below.
