Nick Shirley went to California with a camera and exposed $170 million in fraud draining taxpayer-funded programs.
Sacramento Democrats watched that video and wrote a bill.
Now that bill is moving through the California Assembly – and it is a direct assault on the Constitution.
AB 2624 Would Jail Citizen Journalists Investigating California Fraud
Assemblywoman Mia Bonta – wife of California Attorney General Rob Bonta – introduced AB 2624 to shield the identities of anyone connected to immigrant services organizations.
Names, addresses, phone numbers – all locked behind a state-run confidentiality program the moment anyone associated with a taxpayer-funded immigration nonprofit claims to feel threatened.
Bonta called it protection against harassment.
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, R-San Diego, called it the "Stop Nick Shirley Act" – because that is precisely what it does.
The penalties in the bill are not symbolic.
Journalists who film or publish information about anyone affiliated with a covered organization face civil sanctions starting at $4,000, escalating to $10,000 per violation and up to one year in jail.
Organizations can seek court injunctions banning further filming for up to four years – and demand removal of videos already online, with triple damages for noncompliance.
"AB 2624 would allow activists and taxpayer-funded organizations to demand the removal of video evidence – even if it captures misconduct in plain view – and threatens journalists with massive financial penalties," DeMaio said.
"If this bill becomes law, the message is clear to every journalist in California: expose corruption and you will be punished."
The California Assembly Judiciary Committee voted 11-2 to advance it.
The $170 Million Fraud Nick Shirley Exposed That Democrats Want Buried
In December 2025, Shirley posted a 42-minute video documenting daycare centers in Minnesota – many empty, all billing taxpayers – and alleged $110 million in fraud in a single day of filming.
The video hit 134 million views on X.
Federal authorities froze Minnesota childcare payments.
Shirley came to California in March 2026 and found something bigger.
His follow-up video alleged $170 million in suspect billings – fake hospices registered to strip mall addresses, luxury vehicles parked outside empty facilities, and Medi-Cal enrollment that had ballooned from $108 billion to a proposed $222 billion since 2022.
"Minnesota was big but California is even bigger," Shirley said on NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich Tonight.
Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform put the accountability question plainly: "California funds a lot of organizations that provide all kinds of services to immigrants, including illegal aliens, and there needs to be accountability."
"The American public have a right to know who they're funding and what that funding is being used for," Mehlman told Just the News.
CHIRLA Sponsored This Bill While Collecting $14 Million in Taxpayer Money
AB 2624's primary backer is CHIRLA – the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.
Since 2020, CHIRLA collected over $14 million in California state taxpayer money, according to KCRA Sacramento.
California Republicans noted that CHIRLA simultaneously runs anti-ICE alert networks throughout the state – posting agent locations and vehicle descriptions during active immigration enforcement operations – while now backing legislation to shield its own workers from the same kind of public scrutiny.
DeMaio confronted Bonta directly during a committee hearing, pressing her on language that lets covered organizations demand removal of video recordings taken in public spaces.
"California Democrats are trying to intimidate citizen watchdog journalists and protect waste and fraud happening in far-left-wing NGOs," DeMaio said.
Gavin Newsom's administration dismissed Shirley's fraud reporting as "political cosplay" and has given no indication he would veto the bill if it reaches his desk.
The Democrat answer to $170 million in documented fraud: don't investigate it, don't prosecute it, and make it illegal to film it.
The First Amendment has no exemption for inconvenient journalism – but California Democrats are doing their level best to write one.
Every American who has ever filmed a public official, walked into a government-funded facility with a camera, or posted a video asking where the money went needs to understand what Sacramento just voted to do.
Democrats are not protecting workers from harassment.
They are protecting a fraud network from accountability.
Sources:
- Madeline Shannon, "Dispute erupts over California bill nicknamed 'Stop Nick Shirley Act,'" Just the News, May 8, 2026.
- Bryan Hernandez, "California AB 2624 Stop Nick Shirley Act," Fox 5 San Diego, April 21, 2026.
- "California AB 2624 dubbed Stop Nick Shirley Act targets journalists," Fox News, April 2026.
- "YouTuber Nick Shirley says California hospice fraud is siphoning millions," NewsNation, March 20, 2026.
- "CA Democrats Advance 'Stop Nick Shirley Act' to Criminalize Investigative Journalism," DeMaio Office Statement, April 13, 2026.
