Kayla Hamilton Act

What is this bill?

• HR 4371, sponsored by Russell Fry (R-SC-7)

• S 3054, sponsored by John Cornyn (R-TX)

Kayla Hamilton was a 20 year old woman who was raped and murdered by 17 year old undocumented immigrant Walter Javier Martinez. Martinez entered America four months before killing Hamilton and allegedly was a member of MS-13. During his trial the prosecution obtained a letter written by Martinez admitting to committing four murders and two rapes when he was living in El Salvador. He was sentenced to life in prison in August of 2024.

As a reaction to this crime, Rep. Russell Fry and Sen. John Cornyn introduced this law in Hamilton’s name. The law itself amends the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008. This new amendment would require the Department of Health and Human Services to hold off from placing an unaccompanied minor in a home with their parents or guardians until they have consulted with the Secretary of Homeland Security (Kristi Noem) and the Attorney General (Pam Bondi) to ensure the child will appear at all upcoming immigration hearings, that the child is safe from traffickers or gangs, or if the child is dangerous.

HHS must also screen for “gang related activity” for all children over 12 years old. This step involves contacting the embassy of the child’s country of origin for background information and examining the child for “gang-related tattoos and other gang-related markings.” Notably, people can have tattoos anywhere on their body, so strip searches would be necessary for this step.

Finally, HHS makes the determination to detain the child or to release them to a parent or guardian.

What makes this bill fascist?

The first question that comes to find for me when bills like this are introduced is ‘would this bill have prevented the crime that occurred?’ As written, not even close. HR 4371 outlines actions that HHS need to take once an unaccompanied minor is in custody. During the four months Martinez was in America, he was not detained by the government at any point in time and was not living with any parent or guardian that HHS could have looked into. HHS was never involved in his placement and, if this law had been on the books, none of the steps within it could have been used.

Which leads to question two: ‘what does this bill do instead?’ I think the ACLU does an amazing job of breaking that down, but very basically, it traumatizes immigrant children, adds another punishment for unaccompanied minors who immigrate to America, forces children into prolonged detention until HHS decides on who they are allowed to stay with, and establishes strip searching of children 12 and up as a necessary evil to find gang tattoos. As the ACLU so succinctly puts it, “HR 4371 masquerades as protective legislation, but actually exposes children to violence and criminalization while also advancing White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s mass deportation agenda against immigrant families.”

Simply put, HR 4371 is an anti-immigrant piece of legislation, and like all the anti-immigrant bills that have been introduced this session, this is what makes it fascist.

Which Dems voted for this bill?

• House (7 Dems)

  • Henry Cuellar (TX-28)

  • Don Davis (NC-1)

  • Laura Gillen (NY-4)

  • Jared Golden (ME-2)

  • Vicente Gonzalez (TX-34)

  • Adam Gray (CA-13)

  • Marie Glusenkamp Perez (WA-3)

Did this bill pass?

• passed the House on 12/16/25 by a vote of 225-201