Gov. Gavin Newsom signed California’s controversial “Stop Nick Shirley Act” into law on Saturday.
The Democratic governor put pen to paper on Assembly Bill 2624 just days after a bizarre confrontation outside the state Capitol in Sacramento, where a top legislative staffer crashed an interview with Shirley and launched a crude personal attack on the independent journalist. The measure expands California’s Safe at Home program to employees of nonprofits serving people navigating the immigration system, providing substitute mailing addresses for workers considered vulnerable to targeted attacks and violent threats.
Republicans christened the bill the “Stop Nick Shirley Act,” a nickname coined by Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego. Shirley, a YouTuber who has produced videos following immigrant workers and accusing them of fraud, has become a flashpoint in the debate over immigration reporting and harassment. He has criticized AB 2624, saying it was created after he “exposed widespread fraud in immigrant communities” in California and Minnesota.
Democratic Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, 47, introduced the bill in February after reports of increased threats and harassment against immigration service providers. “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 Saturday. “That is an intolerable consequence of the anti-immigrant rhetoric that exists right now.”
The Safe at Home program already covers domestic violence survivors, elder abuse victims and reproductive and gender-affirming health care workers. Bonta has rejected characterizations that the law conflates legitimate journalism with doxxing, maintaining that the measure targets harassment rather than accountability reporting.
Critics have blasted the measure as a way to intimidate people “trying to shine light on bad behavior.” The fight over AB 2624 reached the US Senate, where Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., referred to it as the “Protect Fraudsters Act.”
Newsom said in February that Somali daycare providers in Minnesota were “under siege” following Shirley’s arrival in that state after videos he produced there went viral. The controversy intensified after Shirley traveled to San Diego on the heels of that Minnesota success.
In the viral moment that gave the bill its nickname, Shirley was conducting a sidewalk interview outside the California State Capitol on Wednesday when Terry Schanz, chief of staff to Democratic Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor, allegedly barged into the encounter. Schanz, who earns $17,319 a month or $207,828 a year in taxpayer-funded compensation, held up a printed flyer and asked: “Did you guys hear that Nick Shirley has a small penis allegedly?” Multiple complaints have since been filed with the California Legislature’s HR department, and Schanz is expected to face consequences.
Schanz has faced other controversy. His name surfaced in a 2025 wrongful-termination lawsuit containing allegations of political bullying and a toxic workplace culture within top Assembly leadership. His office also faced scrutiny in January over allegations that it pressured nonprofit newsroom CalMatters to alter footage involving McKinnor after a reporter asked her a tough question about an expensive designer handbag.
The episode created an awkward backdrop for a bill whose supporters say is designed to combat harassment and doxxing. Shirley’s critics point to his tactics as exactly the kind of targeted behavior the expanded program is meant to address, while his defenders frame the legislation as an attempt to shield wrongdoing from public scrutiny.
Newsom’s signature makes California the first state to extend Safe at Home protections to immigration service nonprofit workers, though legal challenges from First Amendment groups are anticipated.