California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law shielding immigration-service workers' personal information from public view, and Republicans say it amounts to a state-backed effort to shut down investigative journalism.
AB 2624, introduced by Democratic Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, expands California's Safe at Home address-confidentiality program to cover employees of nonprofits that help people navigate the U.S. immigration system. The law also criminalizes publishing information or images of covered workers with intent to incite violence or threats, carrying penalties that range from $10,000 to $50,000 in fines and sentences from one year in county jail to state prison. Critics wasted no time branding it the "Stop Nick Shirley Act", a reference to the independent journalist and YouTuber whose viral investigations into alleged taxpayer-funded fraud drew national attention and, opponents argue, drew Sacramento's legislative crosshairs.
The expanded protections do not take effect until Oct. 1, 2027, after Newsom leaves office due to term limits. But the political battle lines formed within hours of his signature.
Republican Assemblyman Carl DeMaio said Sunday he is formally asking the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene and block the law. DeMaio told the New York Post the pattern from Sacramento has grown impossible to ignore.
"I ultimately believe that this has to go to court because clearly our politicians don't give a d*** about our First Amendment rights. But this is a bad pattern of behavior."
DeMaio has also framed the measure as a tool designed to intimidate anyone "trying to shine light on bad behavior." In separate remarks, he argued the bill would let activists and taxpayer-funded organizations demand the removal of video evidence, even footage capturing misconduct in plain view, and threaten journalists with massive financial penalties.
California Sen. Tony Strickland went further, predicting the law will end up before a federal judge. His team is already exploring a legal challenge.
"It goes against everything we have here in America, but with the vague language, it's shutting down speech and the freedom of the press. Every person and every taxpayer, every person should be able to ask questions and hold our government accountable."
Strickland did not mince words about the governor's posture, either. "If you want to look up dictatorship," he said, "look at trying to shut down people from exercising freedom of speech, freedom of the press and asking questions on how you're spending the people's money."
Nick Shirley is the independent journalist whose work gave the bill its nickname. His videos investigating government-funded programs, confronting workers at various facilities and documenting what he described as widespread abuse of taxpayer dollars, went viral and drew bipartisan attention to alleged fraud schemes in California and Minnesota.
One Shirley investigation focused on alleged hospice-care and healthcare fraud totaling $170 million. That reporting contributed to Vice President JD Vance announcing the federal suspension of 447 hospices and 23 home health agencies, with total estimated fraud eventually exceeding $600 million. Shirley also produced investigative videos accusing immigrant nonprofit workers of fraud in the Somali community in Minneapolis and later in San Diego.
Shirley himself has connected the legislation directly to his work. "This bill was created only after I exposed widespread fraud in immigrant communities across America, specifically in California's Medicaid, nonprofits and other welfare programs funded by our tax dollars," he told the Washington Examiner.
In a separate interview, Shirley warned that the law's practical effect would be severe: "They're literally willing to impose a $10,000 fine or imprisonment if you go and seek to find out the truth about a location that could potentially be fraudulent inside your own neighborhood."
Newsom is no stranger to federal scrutiny. An FBI investigation previously reached into his own political circle, and questions about the conduct of those closest to him have dogged the governor for years.
The bill's co-sponsor is the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, known as CHIRLA, the same nonprofit linked to anti-ICE riots. CHIRLA received more than $8.7 million in government funds between July 2024 and July 2025, though the Trump administration ended DHS funding for the group in March 2025. CHIRLA's executive director, Angelica Salas, praised the signing: "We thank Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature for standing with the people who stand with immigrant communities and for signing AB 2624."
That a group receiving millions in taxpayer money co-sponsored a bill designed to make it harder for journalists and citizens to investigate how taxpayer money is spent tells you everything about the incentives at work. The organizations that stand to benefit from reduced scrutiny helped write the rules reducing scrutiny.
Assemblywoman Bonta, the bill's author, defended the measure by arguing that immigration-service providers face genuine danger. "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.
Newsom's office echoed that framing. "This law has nothing to do with Nick Shirley," a spokesperson said. "It allows immigration service providers to shield their personal information, such as their home address, to protect themselves from getting doxed and harassed."
The governor's credibility on transparency, however, has taken repeated hits. His administration lavished praise on a chief of staff later convicted of fraud even while an FBI probe was already underway, and a separate DOJ probe has examined millions in behested payments flowing to his wife's nonprofit.
William A. Jacobson, founder of the Equal Protection Project and a clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School, offered the sharpest legal critique. He told The California Post the bill is a direct reaction to the exposure of massive public-service fraud in Minnesota connected to the immigrant Somali community.
"The videos created in connection with journalistic exposure of the fraud captured the public's attention and sparked law enforcement action."
Jacobson argued that California's real goal is not protecting workers but protecting the flow of public money from public view. "California wants to shut that down by including immigrant services as a protected class who could not be subject to such journalism. But why?" he said. "This has been dubbed the 'Stop Nick Shirley Act,' but it's really the Stop Uncovering Fraud Act."
On the federal angle, Jacobson was direct: "This certainly is an issue DOJ may want to look into since arguably this new law interferes with policing of fraud using federal funds."
GOP Chairwoman Corrine Rankin kept the focus on taxpayers. "Californians should be able to question how public funds are used without facing unnecessary barriers to investigation," she said.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton seized on the signing to broaden the argument. "Californians have been ripped off for years with all the waste in our government, that's why we pay the highest taxes in the country for the worst results," Hilton said.
Hilton linked the issue to his own campaign platform, announcing what he called "Operation Zero Waste" and proposing to make Californians' first $150,000 of income tax-free. "Instead of attacking people who are trying to expose the waste, we need a new governor who will find it, stop it and give the money back to taxpayers," he said.
Meanwhile, Newsom's political future remains a subject of national speculation. His wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, recently sidestepped a direct question about 2028 presidential ambitions during a television interview.
Diana Crofts-Pelayo, whose title and organizational affiliation were not identified in the reporting, dismissed the Republican criticism entirely. "The real controversy here is that MAGA Republicans are either lying to create up fake conspiracy theories, or none of them know how to read," she said.
Shirley, for his part, did not respond to requests for comment. He is scheduled to speak in Sacramento later this week. The California Post has reached out to the Justice Department for comment on whether it plans to intervene; no response has been reported.
No formal legal challenge to AB 2624 has been filed yet. But Strickland predicted one is coming. "I do believe this law will be ruled unconstitutional," he said. "It violates the First Amendment. However, someone's going to have to challenge it."
Strickland added: "If the federal government doesn't step in, it violates the First Amendment. We have a right to freedom of speech and a right to freedom of the press."
The law does not take effect for more than a year. That gives courts, Congress, and the Justice Department time to weigh in. It also gives Newsom time to leave office before anyone has to live with the consequences.
When the state starts fining people for investigating how their own tax dollars are spent, it is no longer protecting privacy. It is protecting the people who have the most to hide.
