
Governor Gavin Newsom signed 21 bills on September 29th aimed at hamstringing federal immigration enforcement in California, including the nation's first ban on shock gloves, restrictions on flash-bang grenades, and limits on explosive breaching charges used by ICE agents. A 25% tax on private detention centers rounded out the package. Newsom called it "stepping up where the federal government has failed our communities."
Bill Essayli, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for California's Central District, had a two-sentence response that said everything.
"Governor, we've been through this already," Essayli said. "If you want to regulate federal agents, you have to win a federal election."
Then the kicker: "Or what? You're going to write us a ticket?"
Boom. Mic drop.
Essayli didn't stop at mockery. He formally advised DHS to "disregard your bill attempting to ban safe and effective less-lethal tools" — citing what anyone who passed high school civics already knows: federal law enforcement operating under federal authority doesn't answer to Sacramento. The Supremacy Clause isn't a suggestion. It's the reason Newsom's 21-bill signing ceremony was essentially a very expensive press conference.
The Democrats backing the package weren't shy about the goal. Representative Sara Jacobs of California's 51st district called ICE's use of standard law enforcement equipment "torture" and demanded "no more money for ICE or Border Patrol." Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi's 2nd district claimed "ICE has demonstrated a pattern of misusing tools and devices." The specific pattern went unspecified, which is usually what happens when there isn't one.
Newsom positioned the bills as a shield for California's communities. What they actually are is a messaging exercise dressed up as legislation. Flash-bang grenades and breaching charges aren't recreational equipment — they're tools federal agents use when someone barricades themselves during an arrest. Banning them at the state level is like a city council voting to ground Air Force One. The jurisdiction doesn't exist.
The $20 million DHS budget allocation for shock gloves that triggered part of this package tells you something about scale. Twenty million dollars across a department that operates on a $60-billion-plus annual budget. This is the item Newsom built a 21-bill legislative fortress around.
What's notable is what Essayli didn't do. He didn't negotiate. He didn't file a preemptive legal challenge. He didn't issue a carefully worded statement expressing concern. He told the governor of the nation's most populous state that his new laws were functionally irrelevant — and he did it on social media, in plain English, the same day the ink dried.
Newsom has tried this before. Executive orders, sanctuary policies, lawsuits against federal immigration enforcement — all producing the same result: temporary headlines, zero federal compliance changes. The pattern isn't defiance. It's theater. Every bill in the package requires ICE agents operating under federal authority to voluntarily submit to state jurisdiction they're constitutionally exempt from.


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