Who is Kidnapping Whom?

By Andy Caldwell

Aug 17, 2025

The Kidnapper Protection Bill Moves Along

I am appalled but not surprised that California Democrats and illegal alien apologists continue to refer to the apprehensions of ICE and Border Security agents as “abductions.” That is, the mantra is that these federal law enforcement agents are kidnapping people off the streets, and they want it to stop. Never mind that these federal agencies armed with warrants would much rather pick up the illegal alien felons they are searching for directly from California’s prisons and jails upon their release but are forbidden to do so because of California’s sanctuary law status.

Hence, California politicians, including most all south county electeds, are fomenting the very type of apprehensions they dread because of their own stupidity and stubbornness. Yet, somehow, voters continue to give them a pass as they continually release these alien criminals back into our communities to create even more mayhem, havoc, and heartache. Moreover, the irony here is that much of the crime foisted on our community by these illegal alien career criminals, including those that are members of organized crime, targets other immigrants. That is, the immigrant population the left is pretending to protect end up being the victims of the criminals they protect. Then, there is the concern of many that deporting parents who are here illegally puts their children who are American citizens into a forced separation.

However, the left isn’t totally against kidnapping if you consider, AB495, a bill dubbed the “Family Preparedness Plan Act of 2025,” authored by Assemblywoman Celeste Rodriguez (San Fernando-D). It has been correctly stated that this bill is a kidnapper/human trafficker’s dream come true. The ostensible purpose of the bill is to address the children left behind when ICE deports parents. The legislature wants to create a mechanism by which pretty much anyone can claim authority and assume responsibility for the children whose parents have been detained and/or deported.

Of course, the bill is not written to these specific and exclusive conditions meaning any adult can claim a “family-like” relationship with any child, then download an online form that serves as a self-certifying affidavit, and voila, without parental notification, they can pick up the child in question from a public school with no questions asked. The process won’t require a background check or any sort of affirmation or verification from the parents or a court of law that the relationship claimed is bona fide sans nefarious purposes.

Government Officials Replace Parents

Speaking of nefarious purposes, what raised the suspicions and ire of the public, without any help from the so-called mainstream media, is the fact that the bill also takes it upon itself to redefine what qualifies as a “safe home.” As Katy Grimes from The California Globe reports, this bill will allow the government to surreptitiously facilitate the replacement of a parent’s authority for such things as medical treatments: transgender care anyone? Abortion? You name it.

This bill is a blank check for usurping parental rights. As it is a fact that parents across America have already been threatened with charges of child abuse for not assenting to various types of “medical treatments” deemed a “right” for minors.

Janet Levy, in her column “Parental Rights at Risk from Tyrannical State Overreach” published in American Thinker, tells of a chilling account that should warn us of the real goals of AB495 by way of the State of Massachusetts. There, a homeschooling couple with five children were arrested for – you guessed it- –kidnapping their own children! The state took their children into custody because the family fled to Texas after the parents were falsely accused of “neglecting” their nine-month-old baby for refusing – on religious grounds – to get the child vaccinated. The parents were arrested after they fled to Texas in a futile attempt to escape the baseless allegations; all their children were taken into custody. All this even though Massachusetts law allows exemption from vaccines based upon faith!

Levy, in the same piece, also tells of the Indiana Department of Child Services investigating parents for “abuse and neglect” of their 16-year-old son that resulted in the department taking the teenager out of the home and placing him in foster care.

The parent’s crime?

They would not affirm their son’s female identity, due in part to their Catholic faith. Nonetheless, a state appellate court stated, “The parents have the right to exercise their religious beliefs, but they don’t have the right to exercise them in a manner that causes physical or emotional harm to the child.”

Finally, Tyler O’Neil of the Daily Signal published a column about a Colorado bill facetiously titled “Kelly Loving Act” which would classify “misgendering” or “deadnaming” a child as “coercive control” in custody disputes. That is, it would allow one parent to accuse the other in custody disputes, thereby weaponizing issues involving gender identity. Deadnaming refers to the “crime” of calling a transgender by their birth name based upon their original identity.

Of course, the concept of what constitutes a “safe home” and what causes physical or emotional harm to a child is a difference of opinion. The following quote speaks to the effect of divorce upon the family and society. Please consider how this quote applies to liberals today who are using the power of the state and medical quackery to divorce parents from their children and children from reality:

“Divorce takes all authority from the father, all dignity from the mother, all security from the child, and transforms domestic society into a struggle between strength and weakness; it constitutes the family as a temporary lease, where the inconstancy of the human heart stipulates its passions, and which ends where new passions begin.” – Louis de Bonald

Andy Caldwell, Executive Director, COLAB