Kidnapping by Fraudulent Enticement

 Co-Conspirators Abbott & DeSantis   Refugees on a Texas to Los Angeles bus

Fraudulent enticement to lure an individual to be transported to another state or county is the crime of kidnapping under California law. Comparable statutes exist in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Colorado and the District of Columbia. Moreover, kidnapping carries some very long sentences, particularly where the effort involves dozens of individuals. A count for each individual so defrauded. There is no exemption for state employees “following the directives” of their elected bosses. Asylum seekers and those lacking approved entry visas are still protected under those kidnapping statutes. There is no sovereign immunity for elected officials to violate the criminal statutes of other states where they opt to deposit these falsely secured victims. Kidnapping to make a political statement is not protected under the First Amendment or any other constitutional provision.

Yet two Republican governors, seeking to confirm their anti-immigrant rightwing chops, believe that bussing or flying undocumented aliens from border regions into liberal states or counties, where these aliens were recruited by out-and-out falsehoods, is a legitimate exercise of state political rights. They are telling us that using human beings as pawns in elevating their personal political status is not kidnapping; it is merely political expression. Perhaps the same “ordinary citizens engaging in legitimate political discourse” that the formal GOP statement of how the violent January 6, 2021, Capitol attack should be viewed.

It is sad to listen to interviews of those undocumented aliens, upon their arrival as they learn that the promised jobs, legal entry into the US, and economic support were outright lies. But those governors made a rightwing point. They could have asked states far from the border (but California is ON the border) to take some of these refugees, and there are plenty of cities and towns most willing to accommodate the needs of these asylum seekers pending their hearings. That would not have been as dramatic or newsworthy. Red states asking blue states and towns for help takes away the shock factor of dumping desperate human beings unexpectedly.

They also could have asked their elected members of Congress to support viable immigration reform, but Republicans have opposed meaningful immigration reform for decades, even when proposed by a Republican president. Committing a serious felony to make a point was politically more expedient. What are Texas Governor Gregg Abbot and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis smiling about above? The joy of dehumanizing desperate people or the fun of committing a serious, class one felony, and getting away with it?

The nonchalant willingness to use asylum seekers as pawns reaches some pretty farfetched use of local taxpayers’ money. Not having a border with Mexico, Florida’s governor instead funded charter flights from Texas to various locations in the blue northeast, to dump Texas refugees into the backyards of liberal venues in the northeast.

There’s an unpleasant irony in all this that the political instability from which many of these refugees are fleeing is born of a very open American marketplace where assault weapons are easily purchased (and “somehow” make their way to south-of-the-border cartels) plus the massive demand for illicit drugs from American addicts. We created this problem, and lots of poor folks suffer from our failed efforts to contain addiction and our virtually non-existing efforts to stop wide-open arms sales.

And as for global climate change, the United States got rich from the industrial revolution and our vast efforts to extract vital minerals and fossil fuels wherever we could find them. The major countries producing these refugees – Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico – were hardly the guilty parties in greenhouse gas emissions. But the droughts that have desertified some of their best agricultural land have only exacerbated the poverty that drives hopeless citizens north. I’d like to present a recent “false premise bussing” example that was created by Gregg Abbot, where Los Angeles was the dumping ground (the refugees were warmly greeted), written by Brittny Mejia and Jack Herrera for the June 20th Los Angeles Times:

“As the bus full of migrants prepared to embark June 13 on a more than 20-hour journey from Texas to Los Angeles, the passengers were offered bags of chips, water and energy bars… Ambar, who asked to be identified by her first name due to privacy concerns, said they were offered their first real meal several hours later. It was military field rations, known as MREs, or meals ready to eat. Her 10-year-old daughter took a couple of bites of packaged lentils and soon after battled a stomachache.

“Use of the bathroom on the bus was restricted. Passengers asked the driver to stop so they could use a bathroom at a gas station or fast-food restaurant. But they were told they couldn’t stop until they’d left Texas, Ambar said… McAllen, where the trip originated, is near the southern tip of the Lone Star State, more than 11 hours from the border with New Mexico… ‘The trip was really difficult,’ the 28-year-old said. ‘It felt like it was never ending.’

“Ambar and her daughter were among 42 migrants who were bused from McAllen to L.A. in a move Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said would relieve ‘overwhelmed’ border towns ‘on the front lines of President Biden’s border crisis.’… Although Ambar raised concerns about the conditions on the bus, many migrants wouldn’t have been able to afford the trip to L.A. otherwise, she said. Among the group was a family of 15 who probably would have had to pay thousands of dollars for transportation on their own, she said.

“Ambar agreed to take the trip because she was trying to reach Utah and had been told she could get a cheaper bus from L.A. But she was separated from her husband by federal agents at the border, and she’s unsure what to do next… ‘The only thing I’m grateful for is that the bus brought me here, where I could meet such good people,’ Ambar said.

“More than 21,600 migrants have been transported across the country from Texas, under a plan hastily instituted by Abbott last year. Abbott has used the program to protest Democrats’ policies on immigration, and the state has sent buses to a handful of cities run by Democrats: Washington, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and, most recently, Denver… Abbott’s office did not respond to a request for comment about the conditions on the bus to Los Angeles.” The governors and their congressional delegations have firmly rejected efforts at federal immigration reform, preferring to substitute committing felony kidnapping instead. Wonder how Abbott and DeSantis would look like in California Department of Corrections orange.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as angry as I am about such fraudulently induced travel, I also wonder what these self-described “Christians” actually understand about the Bible.