Pro-Trump Pastor Jack Hibbs Lies About California Bill That Would Help Immigrant Families Separated by Trump’s Deportations

“Allows a non-related adult to remove your child from school or daycare with an affidavit. – No background check. No court order. No parent signature. – Parents may not even be notified.”

Democratic California Assemblywoman Celeste Rodriguez introduced AB 495, which is also known as the Family Preparedness Act, in February 2025. The bill is intended to help families facing separation make caregiving arrangements, Rodriguez said in a statement on Aug. 8, 2025.

While the bill is primarily aimed at addressing family separations due to immigration enforcement, it also applies more broadly to other situations where children are already living apart from their parents and need temporary care.

These include cases of deportation, incarceration, military service or illness, among others, Sharon Balmer Cartagena, the directing attorney of Public Counsel’s Child Youth and Family Advocacy Project, told Snopes via email. Public Counsel, a nonprofit California law firm, is a sponsor of the bill and assisted with its writing…

According to a an executive summary of AB 495 published by California’s Senate Judiciary Committee, the bill includes several key provisions:
 
Requires schools and licensed childcare facilities to implement the state attorney general’s updated immigration-related policies for family preparedness.

Standardizes recognition of an official document called a Caregiver’s Authorization Affidavit and expands the categories of eligible caregivers.

Clarifies that a parent’s choice of guardian is given due weight
Creates a short-term guardianship process that allows families facing separations to designate short-term guardians while honoring parental rights…

A caregiver’s authorization affidavit, which is referenced in AB 495, is one example of a less formal option than guardianship that allows someone to take care of another person’s child, an official California Courts website explains.
 
In California, someone with whom a child is already living can sign the affidavit allowing the person to enroll the child in school and consent to school-related medical care, including vaccinations and physical exams, the California Courts website says.

Currently, relatives who sign the affidavit can make decisions on medical care “outside of the school context,” while nonrelatives can only consent to school-related medical care, according to the California Courts website.

AB 495 would expand who can sign a caregiver’s authorization affidavit to include a “nonrelative extended family member,” according to the bill text.
 
The bill defines a “nonrelative extended family member” as “any adult caregiver who has an established familial or mentoring relationship with the child or who has an established familial relationship with a relative of the child.”