AB 2624 SIGNED INTO LAW, CALIFORNIA REJECTS HATED-FUELED MISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN

Today Assembly Bill 2624, authored by Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland), was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. AB 2624 adds immigration support services providers to the state's Safe at Home program, protecting these workers from targeted harassment and doxxing.

"AB 2624 is fundamentally about freedom: the freedom from fear that lets our immigrant service providers do their jobs, and the freedom of the press to do their jobs without ever being conflated with the doxxing this bill actually targets. Those two freedoms were never in tension. Right now, our immigrant service providers are living in fear because of extremists looking to demonize the work that they do and the populations they serve. That is an intolerable consequence of the anti-immigrant rhetoric that exists right now," said Assemblymember Mia Bonta. "I'm proud that with the signing of this bill California is rejecting that, even when people try to make us feel that the political cost of supporting immigrant communities is too high."

THE CONTEXT

The bill was introduced in direct response to a documented escalation of threats against immigration service workers across the state of California. Testimony before the Assembly Privacy Committee included the following account from Angelic a Salas, Executive Director of CHIRLA:

"We received a lot of hate calls, a lot of threats of violence against our organization… I'm personally named consistently, and the threats of violence are extreme… Our staff, just recently, going out to lunch, had people outside asking for their names, asking them questions, really attacking their ability to move from one place to another, trying to get into our office. It happened to me and happened to a family member. They were looking for me and ended up in my mother's home. There's so many of my colleagues where individuals have shown up to their home, who have been threatened, and this is not just our organization, but many others."

THE LAW

AB 2624 extends California's Safe at Home program to immigration support service providers, employees, and volunteers who face documented threats, harassment, or violence connected to their work.

Established in 1998, Safe at Home currently protects survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, human trafficking, child abduction, and elder or dependent adult abuse, and has since been expanded to cover reproductive health care and gender-affirming care providers. AB 2624 extends that same, decades-tested framework to a new category of Californians now facing similar threats.

Eligible individuals apply through the Secretary of State. They must document that they, or the organization they work or volunteer for, have faced threats, harassment, or violence within the past year.

Once certified, participants receive a substitute address that state and local agencies must accept in place of their real home, work, or school address in public records. The bill also strengthens anti-doxxing protections for enrolled participants when bad-faith actors post a participant's home address or personal information online with the specific intent to incite imminent great bodily harm against them or to place them in objectively reasonable fear for their safety.

AB 2624 is effective October 1, 2027.