Kelly Seyarto
Role at the time: Republican state senator and vice chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee, speaking in the committee hearing on AB 2760
Response to this claim
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said on September 29, 2026 that California has no jurisdiction to regulate federal agents and that he had advised the Department of Homeland Security to disregard AB 2760.
“from a federal immigration standpoint, it makes zero difference in what they're doing whatsoever, because we do not have that jurisdiction. I don't want to handcuff our local police.”
The Senate Public Safety Committee's August 26, 2026 hearing on AB 2760 as archived by CalMatters Digital Democracy. The segment is the committee's vice chair, Senator Kelly Seyarto, speaking before the committee voted. He cast the only no vote when the committee passed the bill 5 to 1.
Archived copy (opens in a new tab)Why we used this label
Relative to the ban as applied to federal officers, Seyarto rejects it on both questions: he says the state lacks jurisdiction over federal immigration enforcement, so the ban changes nothing for federal agents, and he calls the bill premature and a handcuffing of local police. We used Condemned because he rejects the ban as beyond the state's reach and unwise. The closest competing label is Challenges the characterization, because he disputes what the bill can accomplish, but he also opposes the policy and voted no.