AB 2624 HEADS TO THE SENATE FLOOR

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 Angelica 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 RECORD

AB 2624 has been reviewed and passed by the: ○Assembly Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee, ○Assembly Judiciary Committee, ○Assembly Public Safety Committee, ○Assembly Appropriations Committee, ○Assembly Floor, ○Senate Privacy, Digital Technology and Consumer Protection Committee, ○Senate Judiciary Committee, ○Senate Public Safety Committee, and ○Senate Appropriations Committee.

It now awaits a Senate floor vote, after which it returns to the Assembly for concurrence on Senate amendments before heading to the Governor's desk. AB 2624 is a 2026 California Legislative Latino Caucus Priority bill and is included in the Assembly Democrats' 2026 package of legislation holding the Trump administration and ICE accountable for its treatment of immigrant communities.

THE BILL

AB 2624 does not restrict filming in public, does not prohibit investigative journalism, does not modify public records law for organizations, and does not apply to anyone who hasn't voluntarily enrolled in and been certified by the Safe at Home program. It extends a 28-year-old, court-tested confidentiality program to people who are being followed home and threatened for helping their neighbors.

ON EVIDENCE CODE §1070

Earlier drafts of AB 2624 included an explicit reference to Evidence Code §1070, California's journalist shield law. That reference was removed in the Senate's July 2026 amendments to remove legal redundancy and ensure it was clear no provision of this bill touches the journalism Californians rely on to hold government accountable.

The language in AB 2624 requires the specific intent to incite imminent great bodily harm, or to place someone in objectively reasonable fear for their safety. Actions which fall outside the scope of journalism.

Section 1070 is an independent, standing statute. Removing a citation to it from AB 2624 does not touch it, narrow it, or affect who it protects. Investigative journalism tactics such as showing up somewhere, filming in public, publishing a report, does not meet the threshold of incitement of harm within AB 2624.

Assemblymember Bonta remains committed to a free and independent press, and to the journalists who do the daily work of holding California's government accountable. The opposition to AB 2624 has not come from them. It has come from bad-faith actors looking for any available vehicle to smear immigrant communities and the people who serve them.