Gavin Newsom signs controversial Stop Nick Shirley Act into law

Gov.Gavin Newsom signed California’s controversial “Stop Nick Shirley Act” into law on Saturday, just days after a radical left-wing operative crashed the journalist’s Capitol interview and launched a crude personal attack on him.Assembly Bill 2624 expands California’s Safe at Home program to employees of nonprofits that serve people navigating the immigration system.Critics have blasted the measure as a way to intimidate people “trying to shine light on bad behavior.”The law takes effect Oct.

1, 2027.The program already covers domestic violence survivors, elder abuse victims and reproductive and gender-affirming health care workers by providing substitute mailing addresses for people considered particularly vulnerable to targeted attacks and violent threats.Democratic Assemblywoman Mia Bonta (D-Alameda), 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.”Republicans gave the measure the nickname of the “Stop Nick Shirley Act,” coined by Assemblyman Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego.Shirley, an independent journalist and YouTuber, has made videos following immigrant workers and accusing them of fraud.He has criticized AB 2624, saying it was created after he “exposed widespread fraud in immigrant communities” in California and Minnesota.The controversy intensified after Shirley traveled to San Diego following the viral success of videos he produced about Minnesota.Newsom said in February that Somali daycare providers there were “under siege” following Shirley’s arrival.Then came a bizarre twist.On Wednesday, Shirley was conducting a sidewalk interview outside the California State Capitol in Sacramento when Terry Scha...