What's at stake?
After years of advocating for a California law to protect diaspora communities from foreign harassment and intimidation, advocates await the bill’s passage while emphasizing that much work remains to fully address these threats.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has until Sunday to sign or veto California’s first law acknowledging transnational repression as a threat, requiring the state to develop training to help law enforcement recognize and respond to it.
Advocates told Fresnoland that there’s been no word on whether Newsom plans to sign the bill.
In an emailed statement to Fresnoland, Graham West, managing director of policy and communications for the Sikh Coalition, said the organization is preparing for three possible outcomes: The governor signing the bill before Sunday, taking no action by that date, or issuing a veto.
“Our understanding is that if the governor doesn’t sign a bill, it becomes law by default,” West said. “So functionally, the first two scenarios amount to the same thing — a win, as far as we’re concerned.”
Newsom can sign it into law, let it become law without signing, or veto it. If the governor issues a veto, the Legislature has 60 days to respond and can override it with a two-thirds vote in both houses.
Transnational repression happens when foreign governments or their agents threaten or harass people in the U.S. because of their political beliefs or activism.
The bill was introduced by state Sen. Anna M. Caballero (D-Merced), co-authored by Assemblymembers Esmeralda Soria and Jasmeet Bains, aimed at providing formal recognition from the California government and validating these concerns.
If the bill passes into law, it would direct the California Office of Emergency Services and the Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission to create and regularly update a training program to help local police departments recognize signs of foreign political intimidation.
Two prominent Sikh leaders previously told Fresnoland they believed an October 2023 meeting with top city leaders felt like an act of transnational repression.
On Oct. 16, 2023, Fresno city leaders met with a large group of Hindu leaders to educate local law enforcement about threats facing Hindu communities across California.
Two prominent Sikh leaders previously told Fresnoland that the meeting felt like an act of transnational repression, especially because the Hindu leaders had approached law enforcement about them due to their work in the Sikh community.
The Sikh leaders said they were both followed after the meeting. City leaders have acknowledged the meeting but denied having anyone followed as a result.
Fresnoland requested public records on April 18 from Mayor Jerry Dyer’s office to confirm who attended the meeting. The response, received on Aug. 4 confirmed the date and time, but redacted the names of those present.
Advocates say transnational repression has surfaced in the Central Valley, including Fresno, taking forms such as assassinations, disappearances, and other acts of intimidation or violence.
How California’s transnational repression law took shape
In 2023, the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, founder of Sikhs for Justice, in Vancouver Canada, sparked new fears, and U.S. intelligence later confirmed India’s involvement in plots targeting Sikh activists abroad.
The FBI and other agencies warned community leaders across the U.S., including in the Central Valley, about credible threats.
California’s first Sikh state lawmaker, Bains, introduced the state’s first transnational bill last year, but it faced criticism over budget concerns, its broad language, and references to specific countries like India and China.
The bill failed amid strong opposition from Hindu American advocacy groups, who warned it could increase harassment of Hindu Californians by pro-Khalistan activists and criticized the Office of Emergency Services’ authority to train local law enforcement on identifying “foreign proxies” without clear definitions or evidence such threats exist in the state.
For this year’s bill, some Hindu American groups, including the Coalition of Hindus of North America and HinduPACT, have circulated formal letters to the governor urging their communities to oppose SB 509.
The letters argued that it oversteps federal authority and could harm California’s relationship with India. They contend that issues like transnational repression and foreign policy should remain under federal jurisdiction and warn that the bill’s vague language could allow politically motivated groups to misuse it against Hindu or Indian American organizations.
The groups also cite concerns about economic risks, rising anti-Hindu hate crimes, and the potential for the bill to heighten tensions between Hindu and Sikh communities. They argue that while they support federal efforts to address genuine transnational repression, SB 509 could lead to unjust targeting, economic fallout, and deeper community divisions if enacted at the state level.
In an emailed statement to Fresnoland, Bains said she has pushed for a transnational repression law, calling it “a real and present danger that allows dictators to violate U.S. sovereignty.”
“Americans have been stalked, harassed, and killed by foreign governments for exercising their right to free speech,” said Bains. “Without training, local law enforcement lack the tools to do their jobs to the best of their ability.”
Bains continued, “Unlike the Trump Administration which believes people are presumed guilty based on the color of their skin or the language they speak, in California we believe in due process and the value of good police work.”
Bains said that’s why the bill was backed by a diverse range of stakeholders, from statewide law enforcement organizations to the California Democratic Party, and has received broad bipartisan support in the legislature.
“The Founding Fathers enshrined the First Amendment in the Constitution because freedom of speech threatens the power of kings and dictators,” said Bains. “Authoritarian regimes want nothing more than [to] silence their critics, especially even when they are American. Words are more powerful than their threats of violence. The truth will not be silenced.”
Some Sikh organizations believe the law is only one tool to address transnational repression
Puneet Kaur, senior state policy manager at the Sikh Coalition, said that the passage of California’s new transnational repression bill would be a significant milestone for diaspora communities but emphasized that much more work remains.
The bill, she said, is just one tool among many needed to protect communities from foreign harassment and intimidation. It requires law enforcement officers to receive training to better recognize and respond to threats linked to foreign governments.
“Police training is only as good as those who consume it and those who are going to be practicing these new modes of investigating and police work,” said Kaur.
The hope, Kaur said, is for law enforcement to ask more follow-up questions and understand cultural context, noting that threats against a Sikh gurdwara, a mosque, or a Baptist church can take different forms and require nuanced understanding from law enforcement.
For the Sikh community, which makes up a small minority in India, but a significant portion of California’s Indian diaspora, the law provides a mechanism to safeguard against targeted harassment and intimidation.
Kaur stressed that the effort has also amplified voices from other communities affected by transnational repression, including Iranian and Russian Americans.
“We want to continue collecting those stories and building that collective power so that people understand this issue is not just a single faith or a single country issue,” Kaur said.
Kaur also pointed to how states like Texas and Nebraska this year have already passed similar legislation, and California’s widely supported example could inspire other states to follow suit.
“The more states tend to take action, the more the federal government tends to notice,” Kaur said. “We want to really continue building momentum on growing support from all of the various different diaspora communities who are affected by transnational repression.”
Kaur said implementation of the required law enforcement training could take up to 18 months, during which transnational repression will not pause. The Sikh Coalition plans to continue collecting data, sharing survivor stories, and educating both lawmakers and law enforcement about the complexities of these threats.
“This bill is just a jumping-off point,” Kaur said. “It will be a huge signal to not only victims and targets of these types of crimes, but to foreign governments as well, that California does not stand for foreign interference—especially not against one of the most fundamental American rights we have, which is freedom of speech, religion, and political expression.”
Naindeep Singh, executive director of the Jakara Movement, said he was glad to see a broad coalition—working with Sikh groups and other partners—push for a bill to address transnational repression.
Singh said the Jakara Movement will continue to push future federal administrations to fast-track protections and special visas for those targeted by foreign regimes, increase state funding for legal clinics to defend survivors of all backgrounds, and strengthen local agencies to report suspicious activities.
He added that this also includes urging officials to publicly disclose incidents, pass resolutions of condemnation, and demand full transparency from such groups operating in California.
Both Kaur and Singh said the Jakara Movement is the only group in the Central Valley that has engaged with the bill. According to Singh, 28 gurdwaras from Fresno to Bakersfield support it.
Singh added that the Jakara Movement will support Sikh organizations that work directly with law enforcement, by helping develop materials and sharing stories that highlight the real threat of transnational repression.
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