201 Dems vote towards invoice requiring gang tattoo screening for migrant children

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2 hundred and one Home Democrats voted towards a invoice that Republicans say would forestall 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. 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 named 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 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 keeping with a press launch by the Maryland State Lawyer'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 youngsters (UAC) who come to the U.S. undocumented in ways in which Republicans argue might forestall future tragedies like Hamilton's.

"I feel on this one occasion, a easy telephone name to El Salvador would have saved him in a safe facility. An eyeball test on gang tattoos on his physique would have saved 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 informed Fox Information Digital on Tuesday afternoon.

His invoice would mandate the Well being and Human Companies Division (HHS) to display unaccompanied minors for gang tattoos, and place UACs who've such indicators in safe federal amenities quite 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 Photos)

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 ground stated it will hurt already vulnerable children .

"Republicans are treating unaccompanied migrant youngsters like criminals," Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Unwell., stated. "We should use each instrument at our disposal to guard susceptible youngsters…this invoice criminalizes youngsters 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 Photos)

Rep. Luz Rivas, D-Calif., stated it "undermines and strips essential rights from susceptible 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 youngsters once they come into this nation. It already is in follow. 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, possibly we should not allow them to out onto the streets."

"I feel some mental honesty is basically essential for them," Fry informed Fox Information Digital after debate. "They wish to complain about medical evaluations for youths. That was a Democrat proposal. That was the Democrat legislation that they did. But when they wish to misrepresent what this invoice is about, simply because they do not like Trump — I feel children and their security are extra essential than being mad on the president."

Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox Information Digital main protection of the Home of Representatives. Earlier digital bylines seen at Each day Mail and CBS Information.