A bill that would extend privacy protections for people who provide legal, health care and other aid to immigrants is facing intense pushback from Republican legislators who say the proposal threatens journalists trying to uncover government fraud.
Assembly Bill 2624 would expand the eligibility for California’s Safe at Home Program to immigration service providers. Established nearly 30 years ago, the program enables enrollees to keep their residential addresses confidential by providing a substitute mailing address through the California Secretary of State.
The program was originally created to protect victims of domestic violence, but has since expanded to include victims of sexual abuse and human trafficking, as well as people who work in reproductive and gender-affirming health care.
- Assemblymember Mia Bonta, Oakland Democrat and bill author, at a public safety hearing Tuesday: “This is about the safeguard of our privacy, dignity and safety of immigrant service workers and their families. … If providers are driven out or silenced, immigrant communities lose access to vital services that help them survive and thrive.”
But GOP Assemblymember Carl DeMaio of San Diego argues that a provision of the bill — which bans a person from posting on the internet “the personal information or image of any designated immigration support services provider” with the intent to cause harm — aims to undermine the work of citizen journalists such as Nick Shirley.
Shirley, who posted his own video criticizing the bill, is a right-wing influencer whose 2025 video accusing Somali child care centers in Minnesota of widespread fraud triggered a surge of federal immigration enforcement activity in the state.
DeMaio has dubbed the bill the “Stop Nick Shirley Act.”
- DeMaio, at a privacy hearing earlier this month: “This is not about protecting people from violence. This is about threatening and intimidating people who are trying to shine a light on bad behavior.”
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Other Stories You Should Know
New ICE detention center activated
A new U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement center in Kern County quietly began receiving detainees this month. It is the eighth detention center in the state and the second to open since President Donald Trump took office last year, reports CalMatters’ Wendy Fry.
The site, called the Central Valley Annex, is a former privately run state prison operated by the GEO Group. The company put forward a proposal to use it for immigration enforcement in 2020, but it did not begin holding ICE detainees until recently.
Advocates for detainees told CalMatters they did not have an opportunity to raise concerns about the site.
- Edwin Carmona-Cruz: “We don’t want another ICE detention center in California, or anywhere else for that matter.”
According to GEO Group’s website, the newly activated Central Valley Annex facility is accredited by the American Correctional Association and the National Commission on Correctional Health Care. It previously housed detainees from the U.S. Marshals Service.
The latest figures show an average of about 5,337 people are being held in California immigration detention facilities, according to DetentionReports.com. That number is up 72% from the average daily population of about 3,104 individuals being held in California in April 2025.
San Diego to cut art funding
Faced with a multimillion-dollar deficit, the city of San Diego plans to gut funds for the arts, libraries and recreation centers — underscoring the similar financial distress other major cities are currently experiencing, writes CalMatters’ Deborah Brennan.
As a $146 million budget gap looms over the city, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria revealed a $6.4 billion spending plan last week that funds public safety, homelessness and road repair. But the budget also eliminates nearly all arts funding and ends a matching grant fund that helped libraries — a move that angered arts and culture advocates.
- Patrick Stewart, CEO of the San Diego Library Foundation: “When we cut the things that make San Diego or any city great … I shudder to think what we end up with.”
San Diego is not alone, however: Los Angeles is grappling with a $200 million deficit, Sacramento with a $66 million shortfall and San Francisco with a $643 million gap.
A November report by the National League of Cities found that most cities are struggling with rising costs, infrastructure demands, tariffs and other pressures. Its survey of local governments reported that 55% of cities found it harder to balance their budgets in 2025 than the previous year.
California Voices
CalMatters columnist Dan Walters: Public schools are the single largest item in the state’s budget, the next California governor must make clear their approaches to education and what they would do to raise the state’s mediocre academic achievement.
After artificial intelligence was allegedly involved in the March bombing of an Iranian elementary school, the question is not whether AI will harm children someday, but whose children are already being harmed, writes Sasha Costanza-Chock, faculty associate at the Harvard Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.
Reader reaction: The federal Drug Pricing Program helps those who struggle to access critical health care services, and undermining the program will only line the pockets of pharmaceutical conglomerates, writes Ben Johnson, California Hospital Association’s group vice president, financial policy.
Other things worth your time:
Congress is finally tackling the housing crisis. What will it mean for CA? // San Francisco Chronicle
PG&E launches $10M PAC to take out gubernatorial candidate Steyer // The San Francisco Standard
Telework remains energizing force for CA state workers as July deadline looms // The Sacramento Bee
CA has a new way of getting gasoline, for the first time in modern memory // San Francisco Chronicle
44% of Americans breathe dangerously polluted air. In CA, it’s 82% // Los Angeles Times
Prolonged DACA renewals put CA educators with temporary immigration status in limbo // EdSource
Rent hikes, evictions in CA mobile home parks // KQED
Meta slashes 8,000 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, as Microsoft offers buyouts // AP News
LAFD’s culture of obedience runs deep. Firefighters say they fear retaliation from bosses // Los Angeles Times
