Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell has been accused of violating immigration and employment law to keep his illegal live-in Brazilian nanny in the country, according to a pair of recently filed complaints.
When his South American babysitter’s temporary work authorization was about to expire in 2022, he and wife Brittany Swalwell lied to the feds to keep Amanda Barbosa working for them, a new complaint filed Tuesday with the Department of Labor claimed.
Another complaint, filed to the Department of Homeland security in February and previously unreported, accuses Swalwell of paying the nanny under the table with campaign funds for a period of two years when she didn’t hold valid work authorization.
“Barbosa appears in numerous social media photos with the Swalwell family throughout 2023 and 2024, indicating continued close association and ongoing childcare responsibilities despite the absence of known lawful work authorization,” the complaint to DHS, dated Feb. 16, alleged.
The embattled California gubernatorial hopeful first hired Barbosa, 33, in the fall of 2021 to look after his three children.
Barbosa had come to the US from Rio de Janeiro in January 2021 on an au pair visa. She was paid $3,914 in campaign funds that year, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission data by The Post.
She continued working for the Golden State politician as a live-in nanny the next year, receiving $46,930 in campaign funds in 2022, FEC records show.
With her au pair visa coming to an end in December 2022, Swalwell began the process of sponsoring her for a green card, according to a permanent labor certification application reviewed by The Post.
While that drawn-out process played out, she enrolled at community college, according to her LinkedIn, and under student visa rules, wasn’t allowed to work off campus.
But that doesn’t appear to have stopped Swalwell, whose other international fumbles have included the infamous Fang Fang affair.
Social media photos from her since-deleted Facebook account show Barbosa caring for the kids at a variety of family events over the next two years, even being so bold as posting photos at the annual White House picnic in 2023 and 2024, where she’s holding up the youngest child, then two, in her arms while sporting a blue sundress.
In another snap, on Halloween in 2024, she’s taking the kids trick or treating while wearing a Brazil soccer shirt.
Her LinkedIn page, also deleted since the allegations, said she worked as a private childcare provider continuously from 2021 to present, according to a screenshot included in the complaints.
On paper, the direct campaign payments to Barbosa had stopped.
Instead, $52,262 in campaign expenses for “childcare” were written off to Swalwell himself, FEC records reviewed by The Post show. The complaint alleges that was a fraudulent workaround to keep Barbosa off the books while she wasn’t authorized to work in the US.
“It’s a brazen disregard for the law. He’s harboring and employing an illegal,” slammed California filmmaker and activist Joel Gilbert, who filed the complaint.
The permanent labor certification was approved in 2024, the Department of Labor told The Post.
By 2025, Barbosa was back on the books, receiving $38,905 in campaign funds from Swalwell, according to FEC data.
The California Dem is a staunch defender of illegal immigrants, having argued for “reforms that would provide a way to bring undocumented workers out of the shadows” as part of his immigration position.
His campaign unraveled Friday after four women reported horrific acts of sexual assault and misconduct — including a former staffer who claims Swalwell raped her when she was drunk and left her bruised and bleeding during an alleged 2024 attack.
He slammed the sexual assault allegations as “absolutely false” and vowed to “fight them with everything I have.”
Swalwell is already under investigation by the FEC for spending more than $200,000 in campaign funds on personal babysitting based on a complaint filed to the agency in February, according to Gilbert who also filed the complaint.
Though he did get them to issue a 2022 opinion giving him the green light to use contributions for overnight childcare if the expenses resulted from travel for campaign events, the FEC complaint, filed in February, alleges the prolific nature of the payments clearly show they were made for regular childcare expenses rather than the occasional campaign travel.
The FEC wasn’t immediately available for comment. There have been no findings of wrongdoing.
Swalwell has previously been in the spotlight for his lavish expenses and living above his means despite the couple bringing home more than $400,000 in combined income, including dipping into retirement funds and carrying high amounts of debt, while spending on yachts, fancy hotels and limo service.
In the wake of the sexual assault allegations, which Swalwell has so far denied, online betting odds shifted toward billionaire progressive Tom Steyer winning California’s governor’s race.
The open primary is on June 2.
Swalwell did not respond to a request for comment about the allegations and Barbosa could not be reached.
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