On Sunday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 495, a measure allowing a wide range of relatives to act as temporary caregivers for children if their parents are deported. The bill also prohibits daycare providers from collecting immigration information about children or their parents, and allows parents to designate a temporary legal guardian through family court.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are making it clear that we support families, their right to privacy, and their ability to prepare for emergencies,\u201d Newsom said in a press release.<\/p>\n
The law is one of several passed this year by California\u2019s Democrat-led Legislature in response to aggressive immigration enforcement under the Trump administration. Newsom recently signed other related laws \u2014 including a ban on ICE agents wearing masks in California and a requirement for warrants at schools and hospitals.<\/p>\n
Assembly Bill 495, however, drew significant conservative backlash. Newsom delayed his decision on the bill for weeks, prompting strong advocacy from immigrant rights groups. He signed it just one day before the deadline to act on over 800 bills sent to his desk.<\/p>\n
The most debated part of the bill involves a little-known document called a \u201ccaregiver\u2019s authorization affidavit.\u201d This form allows a relative living with a child to temporarily make decisions like enrolling them in school or taking them to the doctor when the parents are unavailable.<\/p>\n
The new law expands who can fill out this form \u2014 not just close relatives like grandparents or siblings, but also extended family such as cousins, great-aunts, or anyone related by blood, adoption, or affinity within five degrees of kinship. Importantly, this does not give custody and parents can revoke the designation at any time.<\/p>\n
Supporters argue that immigrant parents at risk of deportation deserve the right to choose a trusted adult to care for their children. Many immigrant families don\u2019t have close relatives in the U.S., but they often rely on extended family or community networks.<\/p>\n
The bill was supported by immigrant advocacy groups and child welfare organizations like the Alliance for Children\u2019s Rights and First 5 California.<\/p>\n
\u201cI introduced this bill so children wouldn\u2019t have to fear what happens if their parents can\u2019t pick them up from school,\u201d said Assemblymember Celeste Rodriguez, who authored the bill.<\/p>\n
Opponents \u2014 including Republican lawmakers, religious groups, and parental rights activists \u2014 argue that the bill could endanger children by allowing people who are not close relatives to assume responsibility.<\/p>\n
Some opponents falsely claimed that the bill would let total strangers take custody of children. Hundreds rallied at the state Capitol to protest the bill, including Pastor Jack Hibbs, who called it \u201cthe most dangerous bill we\u2019ve seen\u201d in Sacramento.<\/p>\n
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a Republican from San Diego, called the bill \u201ca human trafficker\u2019s dream.\u201d<\/p>\n
Greg Burton of the California Family Council criticized the idea that someone could claim parental rights just by signing a form without the parents present. \u201cWhat are parental rights if someone else can claim them just by signing a piece of paper?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
In response to these concerns, Rodriguez revised the bill over the summer to exclude “nonrelative extended family members,” but the changes didn\u2019t satisfy critics. The bill ultimately passed along party lines.<\/p>\n
Governor Newsom has often taken a more moderate stance on child custody issues. Last year, he vetoed a bill that would have required courts to consider whether a parent supports their child\u2019s gender identity in custody cases \u2014 a move that upset some in his party.<\/p>\n
At a recent press conference urging Newsom to sign AB 495, Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights asked him \u201cnot to listen to the lies\u201d being spread about the bill.<\/p>\n
In his press release, Newsom acknowledged the controversy and clarified that the new law does not override parental rights or legal custody decisions, which still must be handled by family court judges.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Sunday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 495, a measure allowing a wide range of relatives to act as temporary caregivers for children if their parents are deported. The bill also prohibits daycare providers from collecting immigration information about children or their parents, and allows parents to designate a temporary legal guardian through … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfreshnews1.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfreshnews1.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfreshnews1.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfreshnews1.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfreshnews1.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/americanfreshnews1.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72,"href":"https:\/\/americanfreshnews1.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions\/72"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfreshnews1.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/71"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanfreshnews1.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfreshnews1.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanfreshnews1.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}