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Two hundred one House Democrats voted against a bill that Republicans say would prevent dangerous migrants who came to the U.S. illegally as children from roaming the streets freely.
The legislation passed by a vote of 225 to 201. A total of seven Democrats voted with Republicans for the bill: Rep. Adam Gray, D-Calif.; Jared Golden, Democrat of Maine; Marie Glusenkamp Perez, Democrat of Washington State; Don Davis, Don C; Vicente Gonzalez, Democrat from Texas; Laura Gillen, a New York Democrat, and Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat.
Named Kayla Hamilton's Law after a 20-year-old woman with autism was killed by 16-year-old El Salvadoran teenager Walter Javier Martinez in 2022. Martinez pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in April.
Martjes came to the United States illegally as an unaccompanied minor and was a member of a notorious gang MS-13 gangThis is stated in a press release from the Maryland State Attorney's Office in Hartford County.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett calls the young woman killed by MS-13 an “accidental dead man.”
Kayla Hamilton, killed by illegal immigrants in 2022, celebrates her birthday. (Tammy Nobles)
The bill, led by Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., would tighten vetting requirements for unaccompanied migrant children (UACs) who come to the U.S. without documentation, which Republicans argue could prevent future tragedies like Hamilton's.
“I think in this case, a simple phone call to El Salvador would have kept him in a secure facility. An eye check for gang tattoos on his body would have kept him in a secure facility, because he had both. He would never have ended up on our streets. He would have been in a security facility awaiting his immigration hearing, which is happening pretty quickly,” Frye told Fox News Digital on Tuesday afternoon.
His bill would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to screen unaccompanied minors for gang tattoos and place OACs who have such indicators in secure federal facilities, rather than allowing them to go to a sponsor somewhere in the United States.
It would also prohibit unaccompanied minors from seeking sponsorships who are also undocumented in the United States.
Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., speaks during a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, March 12, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
As for the sponsors they are matched with, the federal government will be required to conduct background checks on all adults in the household, which will include fingerprint scans and immigration status checks.
Progressives who opposed the bill in the House said it would already cause harm vulnerable children.
“Republicans are treating unaccompanied migrant children like criminals,” said Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill. “We must use every tool at our disposal to protect vulnerable children… This bill criminalizes children and sets a dangerous precedent that will only make them more vulnerable.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks at a news conference in Washington, D.C., November 20, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Rep. Luz Rivas, D-Calif., said it “undermines and deprives vulnerable children of critical rights” and “forces children as young as 12 to be strip searched.”
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However, Fry said in response: “We already provide medical examinations to children when they come to this country. This is already being practiced. All we're saying is that if you have a tattoo on your shoulder or forehead, it's a gang tattoo, we're saying, “Hey, maybe we shouldn't let them out on the street.”
“I think some intellectual honesty is really important to them,” Fry told Fox News Digital after the debate. “They want to complain about medical examinations of children. This was a Democratic proposal. It was a democratic law that they passed. But if they want to distort the essence of this bill just because they don't like Trump, I think the children and their safety are more important than being angry at the president.”
