The governor returns AB 2721 without a signature
Governor Gavin Newsom returned Assembly Bill 2721 to the Legislature without his signature. The Office of the Governor sealed the veto message on 30 September 2026, and the message closes with the line that he cannot sign the bill. The message is published as an image-only scan.
The bill would have placed disclosure and notice duties on California hotels when federal immigration enforcement agencies held reservations or contracts at a property. AAHOA, the Asian American Hotel Owners Association, responded in a release dated 1 October 2026 under a Sacramento dateline.
What the bill would have required
The veto message states the requirements. A hotel operator with actual knowledge of a reservation on the premises by U.S. Customs and Border Protection or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would have had to post a notice in a prominent and accessible place to hotel workers disclosing the possible presence of those officers. A second duty attached to the front desk: on request by a guest at the time of check-in, the operator would have had to disclose that possible presence during the guest's reservation.
The message cites SB 294, signed in 2025, on rights education, and the expanded state investment in that work.
The governor's reasons
The message raises consumer privacy and public safety concerns. It records a conflict with longstanding state privacy laws and the question of which law a hotel operator should follow. It also records the risk of demonstrations or other disruptive activity on hotel properties.
The message asks the Legislature to take the issue up again next year, with a focus on safety and transparency for hotel employees.
The AAHOA response
AAHOA welcomed the veto. The release states that the association submitted a formal veto request to the governor after the bill passed, setting out concerns about the practical challenges the legislation would create for owners and operators.
Rahul Patel, the AAHOA chairman, said the association appreciates the decision. He said hotel owners need clear and workable requirements so they can serve guests and operate their businesses.
Laura Lee Blake, the AAHOA president and chief executive, called the veto a clear win for California hotel owners and for common sense. She said hotel owners should not be placed in a position of disclosing who may be staying at their property.
The release adds that similar proposals are emerging in other states, and that the association will keep working with industry partners and policymakers.
The knowledge standard
The veto message states the trigger as actual knowledge of a reservation. The AAHOA release describes the same trigger as knowledge the hotel knew or should have known. The two wordings set different thresholds for when the notice and disclosure duties would have begun.
The figure AAHOA gives for California
The release states that AAHOA members own some 61 percent of hotels in the state. That figure comes from the association. The same release carries an About block with national numbers: 20,000 members owning 60 percent of U.S. hotels, 1.4 percent of national gross domestic product, more than 1 million employees earning 51.3 billion dollars a year, and 4.2 million U.S. jobs supported across all sectors.