It's Kidnapping, You Know

   It's kidnapping, you know, if you put someone on a plane to Martha's Vineyard against their will; and it's kidnapping if you put them on a bus to Washington, D.C., or Chicago against their will.

  It's dang near human trafficking.

  The governors of Florida, Texas, and Arizona have all employed the stunt. Law enforcement officials should be interviewing the migrants to see if any were coerced against their will. And, kidnapping charges should be filed.

  In Florida, the minimum time in prison for kidnapping is four years. In Texas, it is two to 10 years. Arizona? A minimum of 10 years. Governors Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott, and Doug Ducey should be facing some pretty heavy time. 

  They won't, of course. When it's immigrants, somehow that's different. They were clogging up your city, so getting rid of them is hardly viewed as kidnapping. It should be, though. Just because someone is a poor and destitute immigrant -- an unwanted part of society -- doesn't mean you can or should be able to kidnap them.

   Unlawful restraint? It seems those involved possibly should also be charged with that.

   Oh, and human trafficking? Do we say what was done was human trafficking? Human trafficking, says the dictionary, is "the unlawful act of transporting or coercing people to benefit from their work or service, typically in the form of forced labor or sexual expoitation." What DeSantis, Abbott, and Ducey did falls short of that, but is close enough to give cause to wonder. The governors aren't transporting them so they can benefit from working them, but they are transporting them for their (the governors') own benefit.

   It is ironic that we call them "illegal aliens," and all the flying saucer movies are about being abducted by aliens. Funny -- this time around it's the aliens being abducted.