Voices for Voices®

The Dark Side of Assembly Bill 495 | Ep 307

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 307

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The Dark Side of Assembly Bill 495 | Ep 307

Justin Alan Hayes pulls back the curtain on California's controversial Assembly Bill 495, revealing a troubling disconnect between public messaging and legislative reality. While Governor Gavin Newsom promotes the bill as protection for children affected by ICE enforcement actions, the actual text creates potential dangers for every child in California.

The podcast meticulously breaks down how AB495 extends far beyond helping children whose guardians face deportation. Instead of limiting guardianship to blood relatives in specific immigration-related situations, the bill creates a sweeping mechanism where virtually anyone can claim temporary custody of any "unattended" minor through a simple one-page affidavit. This could allow strangers to legally take children momentarily left unsupervised – whether at a park, bus stop, or even glimpsed through a window while a parent steps away briefly.

Most alarmingly, these temporary guardians would gain authority to make educational and medical decisions for children without court verification or allowing medical professionals to question the arrangement. Hayes illustrates real-world scenarios where this could enable child abduction or trafficking under the guise of legal guardianship: "You have a parent who changes, they come out and they're like, 'Where's my son, where's my daughter?' In this case, a person would have been able to take that child, write a one-page affidavit that basically says I am a mentor of this child."

Beyond California, Hayes warns that as the state often leads national legislative trends, this dangerous precedent could spread across America. The episode serves as an urgent call for more thoughtful legislation that protects vulnerable children without creating opportunities for exploitation. Join the conversation and learn why this public safety concern demands immediate attention before it's too late.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome to Voices for VoicesⓇ

4:25 How to Access Our Podcast

9:52 Why California Legislation Matters

18:54 Assembly Bill 495 Explained

27:20 Ice-Affected Children vs. All Children

34:12 Potential Dangers of AB 495

40:43 Closing Thoughts and Invitation

#AssemblyBill495 #DarkSideOfPolitics #LegislativeImpact #CaliforniaPolitics #PolicyAnalysis #BillCritique #SocialJusticeIssues #GovernmentTransparency #LegalReformDebate #AdvocacyAwareness #PoliticalControversy #PublicPolicyDiscussion #AB495Concerns #CivicEngagementMatters #InformedCitizenship #EthicsInGovernment #justiceforsurvivors #justice4survivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #factoverfictionmatters #transparency #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices307

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Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I'm your host. Founder of Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes. Thank you so much for joining the episode. We have over 300 episodes.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

If you are just becoming aware of Voices for Voices and you can watch on Rumble, you can watch on YouTube or you can listen on a variety of audio platforms and what we found that we needed to touch on is you can also listen to every episode of our show on our website without using an app, so you don't have to use iHeart or Spotify or Apple Podcasts or another. So, on the go or if you're at home, maybe sometimes you watch, sometimes you listen, but also know that you're able to find all audio episodes of our show at wwwvoicesforvoicesorg forward slash podcast, and so that is wwwvoices4 and that's spelled out four with the letters f-o-r. Voices dot org. Forward slash podcast. One last time they say three is the magic number wwwvoicesforvoicesorg forward slash podcast. Thank you for bearing with me on that. We've become aware that some individuals want a different option, an easier option, and if they're not downloading an app and using one or paying for the service, that it's free so you can go to our website and find all the audio episodes, and the best thing about it is you don't have to scroll down. At the very top is the latest and greatest show of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. And again, a great welcome to everybody here. Northeast Ohio, the United States, as well as all points across the world. We're so grateful to have everybody join us, the love and support you've given us, especially recently with one of the recent episodes where I shared a little bit into my depression and in some down time and down days that I've been experiencing more recently, and so thank you for everyone who's reached out and offered their kind words of support. Thank you all for all that you do, and we wish nothing but success for everyone that is watching, listening, that is watching listening, and even if they're not watching, listening. We want everybody across the world to succeed, to dream, to believe in themselves, much the way that I try to do here, with voices for voices and individually as a human being.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

One of our episodes that we had recently was talking about, and it might have been also in a TikTok video. We do so much work around here that it may have been both. It may have been an episode and a TikTok and it's about the state of California and I know you know if you're here in Ohio or a different state, you might say well, why are you always bringing up California? Well, number one, I'm not always bringing up California. I'm just bringing up California now and other episodes because, as we may or may not know, california sometimes leads the way of the United States as far as legislation, new things, new policies sometimes are followed. Other states follow the lead of California and so that, on top of California being just such a large state in our United States of America and a lot of population of the United States in California, and so that's why we're talking about California and we talked about one of the assembly bills with San Diego District Attorney Summer Steffen on an earlier episode. Again, go ahead and check that out. That was awesome.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

She's a great guest, just a great person, has a lot of empathy and a real hunger to help individuals in her county, san Diego County, and really also within that people are committing crimes. If they are, she strongly believes in prosecuting to the fullest extent of the law. And but the topic that caught our attention was in the human trafficking, the, the child trafficking, child abuse that allegedly has gone on not only in that particular county but other areas across the United States and, unfortunately, some areas across the world as well. And so to have her be a proponent of wanting to help, one of the big things we do talk about. When I talk about these big issues, and even smaller issues or local, we look out and we try to share information that is in the best interest of the public, especially public safety, public health. So if there is something you can say, a few years ago, covid COVID was a and it still is public health, public safety concern, and so is human trafficking and child abuse, and it doesn't just have to be a minor, age-wise, it can be an adult that could be thought that they were a minor, or adults can also be caught up in that, but they can also be victims and survivors of it.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

And so we want to talk about this episode, expand a little bit more on not the assembly bill that we talked with the San Diego District Attorney, summer Steffen about, but another Assembly Bill Assembly Bill 495, and Gavin Newsom, governor. We've put requests out on our show. We made it clear that we'd love to have him as a guest on our show and that it clear that we'd love to have him as a guest on our show and that we would reciprocate by being the guest on his podcast, and that still stands. And so, gavin, if you're watching, listening your staff, that offer still stands. Again, we'll just have a human, professional conversation, we'll talk about some issues, some things, and then we'll go on and we'll just continue like we have and to get his perspective and his thinking on some of these areas that we have highlighted and that we're highlighting in this episode.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

So, essentially, what Assembly Bill 495 is, what is being communicated from Gavin Newsom is since the Trump administration have come into office, there have been a pickup in ICE-related events. Individuals are here events. If individuals are here illegally, then it's up to ICE and immigration organization under the Trump administration to decide. What we understand is that we're using ICE to get the bad guys and girls off the streets that are here illegally so they commit a crime or crimes. Then ICE can step in. They are here again illegally from a different country.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

So, anyway, so there's a lot of news out there about this and some of the some of the press, isn't? It presses the press. We all have that first amendment right, that free speech where we can share information that we believe, in good faith, to be helpful, and a big part of that is public health, public safety. And so this Assembly Bill 495 in California, essentially from the PR side, the public relations side, and there's been interviews with Governor Gavin Newsom in California stating that, you know, president Trump should be focusing on different things and not trying to, you know, displace children who their parents or loved ones may be impacted by some of these ICE-related events. And so the thought coming from the governor, california and his office is well, assembly Bill 495 says, in their opinion, that it's all about children that are impacted by a family member that may be detained, deported, taken away, and so there's potentially a child of whatever, whatever age.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

And so assembly bill 495 is in the pr game, coming out of the governor's office, is saying, well, if that occurs, then and not only can a relative basically come and claim guardianship and maybe change schools for them, take them to different medical appointments and kind of step in to that role. So that's what the spin is from the governor's office, gavin Newsom's office, is that Assembly Bill 495 is specifically for those individuals, those children that you know, their parent, their loved one that they're living with, taking care of them. If there's an event between that parent, that guardian, and ICE, if they're removed, then here's that child, here's that child, and, and so this assembly bill 495 is only for those situations where these things happen, where these events happen, and it's only for these, these, uh, these children. And the only reason why I'm saying these is because there's more children that aren't impacted and won't be impacted by an ICE event. We're looking at it.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

When you actually read Assembly Bill 495, it doesn't carve out only that the children that are impacted by these ice events where again a guardian family member is caring for them, are removed, detained, dep, deported, whatever that. Not only can a bloodline relative step forward again, take that child in, and we hope and pray that those children are indeed taken care of physically, mentally, emotionally, and so sometimes that doesn't happen. But that's only just part of it. The other part is again, this bill, this Assembly Bill 495, that Gavin Newsom is pushing and is going after the Trump administration about ICE and how they're coming and they're having these kids, these children that are being displaced from family members because of these ICE events, and so we're just staying, in fact here and offering good faith information.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Remember public health, public safety concern. So it would be a concern right to have a 10-year-old child at home, have an ice event and their parent and guardian is removed. So what does that 10-year-old do? Or that 8-year-old or 6-year-old, or maybe a newborn, I don't know, could happen, and so it makes them yeah, if somebody's in the bloodline of that child, it would make a little bit of sense. They're like, yeah, they should be able to come pick them up and care for them, but it's not an assembly bill 495, just about these, I'll say these ice-affected children. It actually is all children.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

And so that is the topic and the area of what we want to really get to the bottom of, or at least just want to talk about and bring to the public's attention, which is you. Thank you for watching and listening. And so we agree again that the child was affected by an ice event and a bloodline relative comes and cares for them. We know that sometimes happens and sometimes it doesn't. We know that sometimes happens and sometimes it doesn't. We know that there are children that go missing and this is one way that if someone was in the human trafficking business, child abuse business, which we wholeheartedly are against. We don't condone any associated action with that. And so there's that. And then the bigger, not the bigger issue. But uh, they're expanding that pie.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Let's say there's, let's say there's, a hundred children in california that you know live with their guardian, their parents and their bloodline, and a nice event happens. The 10 of those, okay, so you have 100, and out of that 100, 10 are impacted. And so this assembly bill 495 makes a little bit of sense there, or more, a lot more sense. But what about the other 90? 95 makes a little bit of sense there, or a lot more sense. But what about the other 90? And well, the other 90 aren't carved out.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

It's not just, again, not just these ice-affected children, it's all children. And it doesn't just mean if an ICE event happens, it means that there's a child that looks to be left alone. That just about any individual, because, as I mentioned, bloodline relative, that makes sense, and for the ice-affected children it makes sense Bloodline relative. But again, that's, let's say, 10 out of 100. So then you have another 90 who aren't and won't be impacted by an ICE event, and Assembly Bill 495 allows for those children to also potentially be taken or kidnapped, potentially be taken or kidnapped, meaning hypothetically, allegedly mom picks up the child from school, they go home, the mother changes and if she's changing, the child may be playing with some toys, depending on the age and that maybe reading a book. And if somebody's walking by that house and they peer in that window and they look and they say, oh, there's no parent or guardian with that child, I need to go rescue them. And so that again is a hotbed of bringing potentially people who don't have the best of intentions in contact with children and making it okay. So let's say, the parent changes, they come out and they're like where's my son, where's my daughter?

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

In this case, a person would have been able to take that child, write a one-page affidavit that basically says that I am a mentor of this child. I know them from a ball team, from school, from. Again, it doesn't limit it, it's wide open. They just have to say I know this child. Again, they might not even know their name until well, they wouldn't if they were a stranger. And so then that individual who's taken that child and is hypothetical, they're able to taken that child and is hypothetical, they're able to take that child and enroll them in a school and they may or may not be, or it might not be the school that they're enrolled in they're able to potentially have them go to medical appointments and have things and surgeries and stuff go on that without the parents' approval, without them really verifying. Because, remember, all they have to do is have this affidavit, which is a one page, and then they show the medical professional, they show the registrar at the school's office, and it's not just that they're able to go and show up and impersonate a loved one, somebody in a bloodline, that these people don't have to be in the bloodline, and again that parent could be out of the room for five minutes. And then this can happen.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

And the crazy part about it, again, it's not just for ice-affected children, it's for all and the medical folks. They can't ask any questions. They have to see that child or whatever, that guardian, that person who's taken that child. The court, the courts, can't step in. And so you basically have a.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

You have Assembly Bill 495. That the PR is. It's only for the impacted ICE children, ice events, and it's not just the bloodline, it can be anybody. Anybody that's walking by, maybe they're at an amusement park, anybody that's walking by, maybe they're at an amusement park and the parents aren't guardians there but they don't ride roller coasters and so their child or children might be with maybe a group waiting in line. And so many times we are looking at our phones and you know so many times we are, you know, looking at our phones and so the parent guardian kind of loses track of where they're at. You know they look up periodically and somebody can be like oh, this is an unintended minor, and they can if they have those ulterior motives under this Assembly Bill 495, the Gavin Newsom is trying to tell that it's all about just the ice-affected children. He doesn't tell you that when you have to read Assembly Bill 495, it may state that that's part of it, but it doesn't carve out as this only applies to these particular. You know you have to match these criteria for this to occur, to have this bill, assembly Bill, go into effect, and so we think that's wrong.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

We did an episode earlier in our catalog and we talked about this, so this is kind of I guess our second time talking about it wanted to bring it up again. Is that the movement within the legislature in California? We don't have any insider information, we're just going off of news reports, it looks like Gavin's looking to sign this. There have been people, even pastors of churches, come out and say, if this goes into effect and you have children, you need to move out of the state of California. Because, again, you just never know. We can plan to be right next to our children all the time. Maybe we're able to. I can even think of a child waiting for the bus at a bus stop. Let's say they're staying with a friend and the friend's parents are watching them get on the bus, or maybe they look away for a few seconds and then the child could be gone.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

And so we just want to make sure that the public is aware of this because, number one, we don't want this to happen in California, because we don't want other states to adopt the same principles, ice and policies and that that they're what they're doing. We can agree to disagree. So, gavin, we can agree to disagree on that and I can agree that children that are impacted by ICE-related events but yeah, somebody in the bloodlines would be able to come and, you know, help them and care for them, look out for their well-being, but once we start talking about non-blood relatives and mentors and coaches and we leave it open like that. That's where the alarm bells go off for me and us at Voices for Voices. And I get social media. I get how there's different videos and different tweets on X or through social or what have you. Again, we have a governor, one of the biggest states and I believe, has aspirations to be president, and so he's looking for that mass appeal.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Well, I want to show this. Some of you may have seen it here. Let me Do I go this direction or that direction I want to be able to make. Okay. So here you see a body and you see President Trump's face and head and behind him you see Jeffrey Epstein. We don't need to get into Jeffrey Epstein, but the reason I'm bringing that up is that was posted and it was on, uh, california Governor Gavin Newsom's TikTok and really to show what the big event at a recent Coldplay concert, where there was a CEO and another individual at the company, where they were embracing, and there was a kiss cam that went off during one of Coldplay's songs, and those two individuals basically got caught, that they were there without their significant others, and and so there's that whole story. And so what I just showed you is california governor gavin newsom's tiktok, taking the original video of those individuals on that kiss cam, exposing them and putting Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump as if they're together.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

I don't know. I don't know what to think about that. I do know what to think about that, but what I do know what to think about that is, I think, the California governor, gavin Newsom, I think you can spend your time doing better things, making it more palatable and more directed at particular situations, and so I think again, I think your time can be spent better. I don't know that that took hours and hours to put together that TikTok video, and maybe your staff did it, but it's still under your name, still under your screen name on TikTok, and so we want to just bring that to the case. And then we know that President Trump, he does things from time to time, and so we we kind of get that. It's kind of like, oh well, you're going to show this to me, I'll show this to you, and you know back and forth, and uh, it's come out.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

The california governor, gavin newsom, is suing fox news for I'm not sure exactly what all, but I just I heard that Gavin Newsom is doing Fox News, and so I just like to say, like, well, why don't you spend more of your time, or at least a little more, and carve out the specific criteria that have to be met? Because if you don't carve that out specifically, then it's interpreted like I'm interpreting it and a lot of other people are interpreting it that it applies to all children. So you can go on tv all you want, you can go on social media all you want and say that this is because of you know, raids and these children. We're just trying to educate them and whatever those excuses are, which we do, we want to educate our children and that's not what I'm saying. Not to I'm saying that don't come on TV and say that it's only you know.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

We want to protect, you know, the ice affected children, because we want to make sure that they continue to get again, get their education going outside and you open it up basically to any child, any minor in the state, and that it doesn't have to be a bloodline relative and it could be an unintended minor. For five minutes again, going back to the example I gave earlier, where mom picks up the child at school, comes home, goes to change child, goes and plays, reads a book. Somebody walks by, looks through the window, sees this unattended child, even though the child's inside the house, they're able to go in and take that child. And we're not saying that all those children are trafficked and abused, but what we will say is some of them are. And so do we want to help people, gavin? Do we want to help all people, or what is it? Because we think we should be helping everybody. And so when we look at that pie chart where there's 100 children and 10 of them are affected by ICE events but yes, those 10 should fall under Assembly Bill 495.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

I don't exactly agree with a non-bloodline relative, but when it extends out, where that's an example that's given in the Assembly Bill 495, but it's not everything. And so we don't want to have those other 90 children be exposed potentially to nefarious activity. Because then, whether we wanted to or not, as California Governor Gavin Newsom, what happens when a crime occurs to those children? Are we going to let individuals go? Are we going to look the other way? Are we going to prosecute them? Are we even going to look for them? And so that's really what this episode is about. We wanted to bring all that together and again and show a video on TikTok If you're including just a specific carve-out of criteria.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

That's one thing. And so we think that Assembly Bill 495 needs heavily, heavily modified, because as it stands or as it sits again, other states sometimes follow suit after California implements something, some legislation, and pretty soon a lot of states do that potentially, a lot of states do that potentially, and then that makes somebody who again is up to no good. It makes them feel empowered because it's like oh, I can go basically anywhere and there's an unintended minor, oh, I don't see their mom or dad, or they're riding the swing and the mom's getting putting on sunscreen and and she looks up and then the child who's on the swing is gone. So we don't address that in Assembly Bill 495, we're leaving that open and the fact that the affidavit or the individual can just say look, I know this, you know I basically rescued this child and maybe take them out, maybe they take them out of state, maybe I don't know. We just know bad things happen and we don't want bad things to happen. We want good things. We want good things for everybody.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

So hopefully this has been a little bit enlightening about assembly bill 495 that it's hugely important to talk about it from the public health, public safety concern area, and I'll state it once again, mr gavin newsome, we would, uh, we'd love to have you on our show just to talk through this, just to see where your mind's at, where you really stand, if you're, if you're going to sign this, as is, uh, there's been talk that maybe I don't know this, but there's been some talk that you might have a special session just to go over this and then sign it, uh, and so that's we want to.

Voices for VoicesⓇ Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

So we want to just talk and ask questions, and you can ask us questions and after you come on our show, then we'll go on your show and we'll talk about what's on your mind and what you'd like to ask us. So thank you for joining us on this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. Please be a voice for you or somebody in need. Let's celebrate all the voices of the world and God bless you, god bless the United States of America, and God bless you, united States of America, and God bless you wherever you're at across the world or even up in space. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye.

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