State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, stood with a former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee and several advocacy groups on Tuesday in San Francisco to pressure Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would let people sue individual federal officials in state court for alleged violations of their constitutional rights.
Wiener spoke from behind a podium on the steps of the Earl Warren Building, home to the California Supreme Court, with a group of people to denounce the harsh crackdown on immigration enforcement and the tactics used by federal agents, whether they be at road checkpoints or inside airports, to capture people purportedly without authorization to be in the country. Wiener offered a way lawmakers can address the issue.
“People are being kidnapped from outside their homes, right here in San Francisco. People are being disappeared from the airport, including at SFO. People are being choked and assaulted and racially profiled,” Wiener said. “We are here today to call for accountability, to call for an end to the impunity that is fueling this terror campaign and emboldening them to take it further and further.”
Wiener has been building support for Senate Bill 747, which he calls the No Kings Act, after the bill passed both chambers of the Legislature and now awaits the governor’s signature. Newsom has until the end of September to act.
“We are here today to call for accountability, to call for an end to the impunity that is fueling this terror campaign and emboldening them to take it further and further.”
State Sen. Scott Wiener
Under existing law, California’s Tom Bane Civil Rights Act — passed in 1987 — lets a person sue over interference with their constitutional rights, but only when that interference involves “threats, intimidation, or coercion.” SB 747 would extend a similar right of action to anyone who deprives a person of rights secured by the U.S. Constitution, without requiring proof of threats or coercion.
The bill would cap the window to sue at two years after a violation, allow prevailing plaintiffs to recover attorneys’ fees, and apply retroactively to March 1, 2025. Written as an urgency statute, it would take effect immediately upon Newsom’s signature.
Eliminating loopholes
Wiener said the current gap in the law leaves federal officers effectively insulated from consequences that state and local officers already face.
“A loophole in our law allows people to sue local and state police officers if they violate your rights, but not federal officers,” he said, adding that once Newsom signs the bill, “immediately, people will be able to begin filing lawsuits against federal agents who have violated their rights.”
George Retes, an Army veteran and U.S. citizen from Southern California who was detained by ICE in 2025 while working as a security guard at a farm in Ventura County, joined the state senator and others calling on ways to keep the federal government accountable for their actions. He said agents bombarded him with tear gas, used excessive physical force, and ignored his remarks that he was a U.S. citizen before transferring him to a detention center in Los Angeles for three days.
“They believe that they can’t be held accountable,” Retes said. “That’s what I’d want people to know.”
Retes has filed a federal lawsuit over the detainment with help from his attorney, Anya Bidwell from the Institute for Justice. Bidwell said the suit alleges violations of his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights, and that because the agents involved wore gas masks and no visible identification, Bidwell’s team is hoping to identify them through the discovery process.
“Right now, federal officials have what amounts to absolute immunity because of the impossibility of suing,” Bidwell said.