Newsom Signs GOP-Dubbed 'Stop Nick Shirley Act'
Newsom Signs GOP-Dubbed 'Stop Nick Shirley Act'
The News
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2624 on Saturday, letting workers at nonprofits that help people navigate the immigration system hide their home addresses through the state's Safe at Home program.
Republicans nicknamed it the "Stop Nick Shirley Act" after the conservative YouTuber whose videos follow immigrant workers and accuse them of fraud.
The law takes effect Oct. 1, 2027.
What the law does
Safe at Home, in place since 1999, gives substitute mailing addresses to people considered especially vulnerable to targeted attacks and violent threats. It already covers domestic violence survivors, elder abuse victims and reproductive and gender-affirming health care workers.
AB 2624 narrowly expands eligibility to employees and volunteers at nonprofits serving people in the immigration system.
Applicants go through the secretary of state and must document that they — or the organization they work for — faced threats, harassment or violence within the past year, according to Assembly Member Mia Bonta's office. Once certified, they get a substitute address that state and local agencies must accept in place of their real home, school or workplace.
Immigration nonprofits can begin applying next October.
Timeline
Bonta, D-Alameda, introduces the bill after reports of increased threats and harassment against immigration service providers. Newsom says Somali daycare providers in San Diego are "under siege" following Shirley's arrival in the community to shoot content, after his Minnesota videos went viral.
Assembly Member Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, nicknames the measure the "Stop Nick Shirley Act" and says it would intimidate people "trying to shine light on bad behavior." Until then, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, the bill was considered uncontroversial.
Testimony before the Assembly Privacy Committee describes a surge of threats against nonprofit workers, including hate calls and stalking.
Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., raises the California bill in the U.S. Senate and says it should be called the "Protect Fraudsters Act."
Terry Schanz, chief of staff to Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor, D-Calif., allegedly barges into a sidewalk interview Shirley is conducting outside the state Capitol in Sacramento, holding up a printed flyer and asking, "Did you guys hear that Nick Shirley has a small penis allegedly?" The New York Post reported Schanz is paid $17,319 a month, or $207,828 a year.
The bill clears the state Senate, then passes the Assembly.
Newsom signs it.
Reactions
"Our immigrant service providers are living in fear because of extremists looking to demonize the work that they do and the populations they serve," Bonta said in a statement Saturday. "That is an intolerable consequence of the anti-immigrant rhetoric that exists right now."
"I'm proud that with the signing of this bill California is rejecting that, even when people try to make us feel that the political cost of supporting immigrant communities is too high," she added. Bonta also said the law does not conflate the press with the doxxing that Safe at Home is meant to stop.
Shirley has criticized AB 2624, saying it was created after he "exposed widespread fraud in immigrant communities" in California and Minnesota.
Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, told the Assembly Privacy Committee in April: "They were looking for me and ended up in my mother's home." She added, "There's so many of my colleagues where individuals have shown up to their home, who have been threatened, and this is not just our organization, but many others."
Republicans in California and Washington spent months attacking the bill as a shield against reporting on fraud. The Chronicle reported those claims — that the legislation would obstruct journalists from uncovering fraud — are false.
What's Next
The expanded eligibility does not kick in until Oct. 1, 2027, when immigration nonprofit staff can start applying through the secretary of state.
The Capitol confrontation has its own fallout: KCRA reported that multiple complaints have been filed with the California Legislature's human resources department over Schanz's stunt and that he is expected to face consequences.
More
Schanz's name surfaced in a 2025 wrongful-termination lawsuit containing allegations of political bullying and a toxic workplace culture within top Assembly leadership, the New York Post reported. His office also faced scrutiny in January over allegations that it pressured the nonprofit newsroom CalMatters to alter footage involving McKinnor after a reporter asked her a tough question about an expensive designer handbag.
Shirley testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on July 15 at a hearing on exposing fraud, alongside O'Keefe Media Group CEO James O'Keefe and the Project On Government Oversight's Dylan Hedtler-Gaudette.
UMass Dartmouth Running Back, 18, Stabbed to Death
Trump Vows 'AI Force,' Czar; Polls Name Change
Sep 20, 2026
Iran Sends Trump Three Conditions to End War
Sep 19, 2026
Faulty AI Intel Nearly Started War With China
Sep 19, 2026
German General Breuer Elected NATO's Top Officer
Sep 19, 2026
Nobel Laureate: War, Sanctions Crushing Iranians
Sep 19, 2026
Dutch Police Disperse Violent Far-Right Hague Protest
Sep 19, 2026
GOP Midterm Odds Fade With 45 Days Left
Sep 19, 2026
Maher Rejects Tarlov's Claim Democrats Are Less Crazy
Sep 19, 2026
Patrick Clancy Breaks Silence After Ex-Wife Killed Kids
Sep 19, 2026
Trump Cuts Park Staff, Diverts Fees to DC
Sep 19, 2026
Holocaust Heirs Sue LA Museums Over Looted Art
Sep 19, 2026
Trump's Fed Chair Hikes Rates, Defying White House
Sep 19, 2026
Miller Drives Push to Deport Illegal Immigrant Children
Sep 19, 2026
US Lifts Sanctions on Eritrea's Military, Ruling Party
Sep 19, 2026
Air Force Admits US Has Space Weapons
Sep 19, 2026
Turkey Revokes License of Iran's Mellat Bank
Sep 19, 2026
Billionaire Ratcliffe Blasts Britain Over Immigration, Taxes
Sep 19, 2026
Navajo Nation Flash Flood Kills Three
Sep 19, 2026
Explosions Over Riyadh Trigger Saudi Air Alerts
Sep 19, 2026
Sep 19, 2026