201 Dems vote against bill requiring gang tattoo screening for migrant kids

200 and one Democrats within the Home of Representatives voted towards a invoice that Republicans say would forestall harmful migrants who got here to the US illegally as youngsters from strolling freely on the streets.

The laws handed by a vote of 225 to 201. Solely seven Democrats joined Republicans in voting for the invoice: Reps. Adam Grey, D-California; Jared Golden, D-Maine; Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash.; Don Davis, D.C.; Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas; Laura Gillen, D-N.Y., and Henry Cuellar, D-Texas.

The Kayla Hamilton Act is known as after a 20-year-old lady with autism who was murdered in 2022 by a 16-year-old from El Salvador, Walter Javier Martinez. Martinez pleaded responsible to first-degree homicide in April.

Martiez got here to the U.S. illegally as an unaccompanied minor and was a member of the notorious MS-13 gang, in response to a information launch from the Maryland State Legal professional’s Workplace in Hartford County.

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Kayla Hamilton, who was murdered by unlawful immigrants in 2022, celebrated her birthday. (Tammy Nobles)

The invoice, led by Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., would enhance screening necessities for unaccompanied migrant youngsters (UAC) who come to the U.S. with out papers in a means Republicans say may forestall future tragedies like Hamilton’s.

“I feel on this one case, a easy cellphone name to El Salvador would have stored him in a safe facility. A test for gang tattoos on his physique would have stored him within the safe facility, as a result of he had each. He would by no means have been on the streets. He would have been in a safety facility awaiting his immigration listening to, which occurs fairly shortly,” Fry advised Fox Information Digital on Tuesday afternoon.

His invoice would require the Well being and Human Providers Division (HHS) to display screen unaccompanied minors for gang tattoos and place UACs which have such indicators in safe federal services reasonably than sending them to a sponsor someplace within the US.

It could additionally ban unaccompanied minors from going to sponsors who’re additionally undocumented within the US

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Rep. Russell Fry, RS.C., throughout a Home Judiciary Committee listening to in Washington on March 12, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photos)

As for the sponsors they’re positioned with, the federal authorities could be required to conduct background checks on all adults within the family, together with fingerprint scans and an immigration standing test.

Progressives who argued towards the invoice within the Home of Representatives stated it could hurt already susceptible youngsters.

“Republicans are treating unaccompanied migrant youngsters like criminals,” stated Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Sick. “We should use each instrument at our disposal to guard susceptible youngsters. … This invoice criminalizes youngsters and units a harmful precedent that can solely make them extra susceptible.”

Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries speaks throughout a press convention in Washington, DC, November 20, 2025. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu by way of Getty Photos)

Rep. Luz Rivas, D-Calif., stated it “undermines and deprives essential rights of susceptible youngsters” and “topics youngsters as younger as 12 to strip searches.”

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Nonetheless, Fry stated in response, “We already do medical evaluations of children once they come into this nation. That is already taking place in apply. All we’re saying is, if there is a tattoo in your shoulder or in your brow, that is a gang tattoo. We’re saying, ‘Hey, perhaps we should not allow them to out on the streets.’

“I feel some mental honesty is essential to them,” Fry advised Fox Information Digital after the controversy. “They need to complain about medical evaluations for youngsters. That was a Democratic proposal. That was the Democratic invoice that they did. But when they need to misrepresent what this invoice is about simply because they do not like Trump, I feel youngsters and their security are extra vital than being mad on the president.”