California lawmakers have introduced Assembly Bill 495, the “Family Preparedness Plan Act of 2025,” aimed at shielding unlawful immigrants from deportation by creating alternative guardianship arrangements. However, in their rush to obstruct immigration enforcement, legislators drafted a bill that severely undermines parental rights and creates dangerous vulnerabilities for children across the state. Rather than narrowly addressing specific immigration situations, AB-495 establishes a sweeping framework that threatens the fundamental right of all parents to direct their children’s upbringing. The bill creates a system where parental authority can be easily transferred to non-family members with minimal oversight, a dangerous precedent regardless of a family’s immigration status.

What AB-495 Actually Does

AB-495 creates a system where non-parents can make major decisions for children with minimal oversight:

• It allows “non-relative extended family members” a category so broad it includes teachers, neighbors, and anyone with a vague “mentoring relationship” to gain guardian-like authority over children
• These individuals can authorize medical care (potentially including gender-affirming care) with the same powers as legal guardians
• The bill creates a confidential system shielded from proper oversight, making records of these guardianship proceedings unavailable to federal authorities
• Schools and daycare facilities would be criminally penalized for collecting certain information or cooperating with immigration authorities

Greg Burt, Vice President of California Family Council, warns: “AB 495 is a grave threat to the God-given responsibility of parents to raise and protect their children. It undermines every safeguard we have in place for child welfare and does so in the name of compassion. But compassion without guardrails is not mercy, it is madness.”

The Trafficking Connection

This legislation creates dangerous vulnerabilities in the protection of children. When care is transferred to non-family members through loosely defined “mentoring relationships,” with confidentiality provisions shielding these arrangements from proper oversight, it creates precisely the type of environment that predators seek to exploit.

In our recent Engage Arizona podcast, Helen Taylor of Exodus Cry explained: “I just see the porn industry… it’s used to groom around child abuse cases. And it is a predatory industry.” These predatory elements thrive when family protections are weakened and oversight is diminished, exactly what AB-495 would enable.

The bill enables exploitation by:

1. Establishing alternate guardianship pathways with less scrutiny than traditional arrangements
2. Authorizing individuals with tenuous connections to make major decisions for children
3. Shielding these arrangements from proper oversight through confidentiality provisions

Helen Taylor’s work at Exodus Cry has repeatedly shown that children are most protected when parents maintain their rightful authority and oversight. By undermining parental rights, AB-495 dangerously weakens this critical protection.

Why Arizona Must Be Concerned

Though currently limited to California, harmful policies rarely stay contained within state lines. What happens in California today often spreads eastward tomorrow. This legislation establishes a precedent that:

• Elevates government authority above parental rights
• Creates state sanctioned pathways for non-family members to gain authority over children
• Forces schools and childcare facilities to become shields against proper governmental oversight
• Enables exploitation by creating systems with limited transparency

The battle over who has primary responsibility for children, parents or government, continues across the nation. Today, California families face this threat. Tomorrow, it could be Arizona.

Standing With California Families

At Center for Arizona Policy, we remain committed to protecting parental rights wherever they are threatened. The strongest protection against child exploitation is intact families with empowered parents. As Helen Taylor emphasized in our interview, when we weaken this foundation, we create opportunities for those who would harm children.

What You Can Do:

1. Share information about AB-495 with friends and family in California
2. Contact California legislators if you have connections to the state
3. Pray for the defeat of this harmful legislation

The fight for family values knows no state boundaries. Today, we must stand with California families against this dangerous assault on parental rights.

SoConCon 25 Podcast Series: 

This week, we released two powerful new episodes in our “Engage Arizona at SoConCon 25” series:

• Defending Life with Brad Kehr of Americans United for Life: Brad discusses AUL’s work developing model pro-life legislation, particularly addressing chemical abortions that now make up over 60% of all abortions. Learn about their Chemical Abortion Accountability Act and how you can support life through initiatives like StopHarmingWomen.org.
• Protecting Children Online with Casey Stefanski: Casey Stefanski unveils the Digital Childhood Alliance’s groundbreaking work to place parents back in control of their children’s digital lives. Find out why both Republicans and Democrats are rushing to support this initiative.

These join our previously released conversations with Helen Taylor on fighting trafficking, Sue Liebel on post-Roe strategies, FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson on deceptive medical practices, and Aaron Baer on rebuilding culture through intact families.

All episodes are available here, or you can find us on your favorite podcast platform.