California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Saturday signed the disputed “Stop Nick Shirley Act,” a law approved only days after a left-wing operative interrupted the journalist’s Capitol interview and directed a vulgar personal attack at him.
The measure, Assembly Bill 2624, broadens California’s Safe at Home program to include employees of nonprofits that assist people dealing with the immigration system.
Opponents have condemned the bill, arguing it could be used to pressure or silence people “trying to shine light on bad behavior.”
The new law is scheduled to take effect on Oct. 1, 2027.
Safe at Home currently offers substitute mailing addresses to groups deemed especially vulnerable to threats or targeted violence, including survivors of domestic violence, victims of elder abuse, and workers in reproductive and gender-affirming health care.
Democratic Assemblywoman Mia Bonta of Alameda introduced the legislation in February, citing reports of rising threats and harassment aimed at 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 labeled the proposal the “Stop Nick Shirley Act,” a nickname 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 Schanz, chief of staff to Democratic Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor, allegedly barged into the encounter.
Schanz earns $17,319 a month, or $207,828 a year, in taxpayer-funded compensation.
He held up a printed flyer and asked: “Did you guys hear that Nick Shirley has a small penis allegedly?”
According to KCRA, multiple complaints have since been filed with the California Legislature’s HR department, and Schanz is expected to face consequences.
The episode is an awkward backdrop for a bill whose supporters say is designed to combat harassment and doxxing.
Schanz has faced other controversy, too.
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 fight over AB 2624 even reached the US Senate, where Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., referred to it as the “Protect Fraudsters Act.”
Bonta has rejected that characterization, saying the law does not conflate legitimate journalism with the doxxing targeted by Safe at Home.
But Newsom has now made the measure law.
