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2 hundred and one Home Democrats voted towards a invoice that Republicans say would stop harmful migrants who got here to the U.S. illegally as kids from strolling free on the streets.
The laws handed in a 225 to 201 vote. Simply seven Democrats voted with Republicans on the invoice, together with Reps. Adam Grey, D-Calif., Jared Golden, D-Maine, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., Don Davis, D-N.C., Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas.
The Kayla Hamilton Act is known as after a 20-year-old girl with autism who was killed by a 16-year-old from El Salvador, Walter Javier Martinez, in 2022. Martinez pleaded responsible to first-degree homicide in April of this 12 months.
Martiez got here to the U.S. illegally as an unaccompanied minor and was a member of the infamous MS-13 gang, in accordance with a press launch by the Maryland State Legal professional’s Workplace in Hartford County.
REP JASMINE CROCKETT REFERS TO YOUNG WOMAN MURDERED BY AN MS-13 ILLEGAL MIGRANT AS A ‘RANDOM DEAD PERSON’
Kayla Hamilton, who was murdered by an unlawful migrants in 2022, celebrating her birthday. (Tammy Nobles)
The invoice, led by Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., would heighten screening necessities for unaccompanied migrant kids (UAC) who come to the U.S. undocumented in ways in which Republicans argue may stop future tragedies like Hamilton’s.
“I believe on this one occasion, a easy cellphone name to El Salvador would have stored him in a safe facility. An eyeball test on gang tattoos on his physique would have stored him within the safe facility, as a result of he had each. He would have by no means been on our streets. He would have been in a safety facility pending his immigration listening to, which occurs fairly rapidly,” Fry instructed Fox Information Digital on Tuesday afternoon.
His invoice would mandate the Well being and Human Providers Division (HHS) to display screen unaccompanied minors for gang tattoos, and place UACs who’ve such indicators in safe federal services reasonably than letting them go to a sponsor someplace within the U.S.
It might additionally prohibit unaccompanied minors from going to sponsors who’re additionally undocumented within the U.S.
HOUSE UNANIMOUSLY VOTES TO MEMORIALIZE TEXAS GIRL ALLEGEDLY SLAIN BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Rep. Russell Fry, a Republican from South Carolina, throughout a Home Judiciary Committee listening to in Washington, D.C, US, on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg through Getty Photographs)
Relating to the sponsors they’re positioned with, the federal authorities can be required to do a background test on all adults within the family, which would come with fingerprint scans and an immigration standing test.
Progressives who argued towards the invoice on the Home flooring mentioned it might hurt already susceptible kids.
“Republicans are treating unaccompanied migrant kids like criminals,” Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Sick., mentioned. “We should use each instrument at our disposal to guard susceptible kids…this invoice criminalizes kids and creates harmful precedent that solely makes them extra susceptible.”
United State Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries speaks throughout a press convention in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 20, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu through Getty Photographs)
Rep. Luz Rivas, D-Calif., mentioned it “undermines and strips essential rights from susceptible kids” and “topics kids as younger as 12 to strip searches.”
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Fry mentioned in response, nevertheless, “We already do medical evaluations of kids once they come into this nation. It already is in observe. All we’re saying is that if there’s a tattoo in your shoulder, in your brow, that’s a gang tattoo, we’re saying hey, perhaps we should not allow them to out onto the streets.”
“I believe some mental honesty is de facto necessary for them,” Fry instructed Fox Information Digital after debate. “They wish to complain about medical evaluations for youths. That was a Democrat proposal. That was the Democrat regulation that they did. But when they wish to misrepresent what this invoice is about, simply because they do not like Trump — I believe youngsters and their security are extra necessary than being mad on the president.”
