Billionaire Tom Steyer admits embarrassing 'mistake' after saying ICE should be 'abolished' in California governor's race

Billionaire Tom Steyer was sitting pretty after one of his main competitors in the California gubernatorial race dropped out — and then Steyer was caught in an embarrassing "mistake."

Steyer has told Californians that Immigration and Customs Enforcement "should be abolished," but it turns out that a hedge fund he founded invests in detention centers.

'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.'

"We never had anything to do with running the company," said Steyer about the revelation. "But it was a mistake to think that that was a place where it was decent to make money."

Farallon Capital Management was founded by the billionaire in 1986 and went on to invest up to $89.1 million in CoreCivic, a company that runs the largest detention center in California.

Two of the five centers run by CoreCivic house federal immigration detainees in Kern County and San Diego.

Steyer sold off his stake in CoreCivic in 2012.

At a town hall event in March, he said that the incident taught him to get out of the hedge fund business.

"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," he said. "And there’s a reason I walked away from that business and walked away from a ton of money."

Steyer has surged into the lead in the California governor's race as the top Democrat, with 21% support in one poll after Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) abandoned his gubernatorial campaign and then resigned from Congress over sexual harassment and assault claims.

Republican candidate Steve Hilton comes in second place with 18% of the vote. The top two vote-earners in the June 2 primary, regardless of party, will advance to the general election in November.

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Steyer's opponents are trying to damage his campaign by emphasizing the hypocritical business investments.

"Those investments were 20 years ago, and I left my firm over a decade ago and pledged most of my earnings to charity," the billionaire has fired back.