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Two hundred and one House Democrats voted towards a invoice that Republicans say would stop harmful migrants who got here to the U.S. illegally as youngsters from strolling free on the streets.
The laws handed in a 225 to 201 vote. Just seven Democrats voted with Republicans on the invoice, together with Reps. Adam Gray, 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 lady 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 yr.
Martiez got here to the U.S. illegally as an unaccompanied minor and was a member of the infamous MS-13 gang, based on a press launch by the Maryland State Attorney’s Office in Hartford County.
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 youngsters (UAC) who come to the U.S. undocumented in ways in which Republicans argue might stop future tragedies like Hamilton’s.
“I feel on this one occasion, a easy cellphone name to El Salvador would have stored him in a safe facility. An eyeball verify 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 shortly,” Fry instructed Fox News Digital on Tuesday afternoon.
His invoice would mandate the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) to display screen unaccompanied minors for gang tattoos, and place UACs who’ve such indicators in safe federal amenities reasonably than letting them go to a sponsor someplace within the U.S.
It would 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 House Judiciary Committee listening to in Washington, D.C, US, on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg through Getty Images)
Regarding the sponsors they’re positioned with, the federal authorities can be required to do a background verify on all adults within the family, which would come with fingerprint scans and an immigration standing verify.
Progressives who argued towards the invoice on the House ground stated it could hurt already weak youngsters.
“Republicans are treating unaccompanied migrant youngsters like criminals,” Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., stated. “We should use each instrument at our disposal to guard weak youngsters…this invoice criminalizes youngsters and creates harmful precedent that solely makes them extra weak.”
United State House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks throughout a press convention in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 20, 2025. Â (Nathan Posner/Anadolu through Getty Images)
Rep. Luz Rivas, D-Calif., stated it “undermines and strips important rights from weak youngsters” and “topics youngsters as younger as 12 to strip searches.”
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Fry stated in response, nonetheless, “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 feel some mental honesty is absolutely necessary for them,” Fry instructed Fox News 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 in the event that they wish to misrepresent what this invoice is about, simply because they do not like Trump — I feel youngsters and their security are extra necessary than being mad on the president.”
