A House Judiciary Committee debate on border security legislation erupted into controversy this week after Representative Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas, dismissed a young murder victim as a “random dead person.”
The committee had gathered to mark up the Kayla Hamilton Act, named after 20-year-old Kayla Hamilton, an autistic woman who was raped and murdered in 2022 by an MS-13 gang member who had entered the United States illegally as an unaccompanied minor.
The bill, introduced by Representative Russell Fry, Republican of South Carolina, would mandate stricter background checks and gang screenings for unaccompanied alien children before they are released into American communities.
Rather than address the policy substance, Ms. Crockett turned her criticism toward Republicans. “Stop just throwing a random dead person’s name on something for your own political expediency,” she told colleagues, sparking immediate backlash. She also accused the GOP of selective outrage, claiming Republicans ignore victims “like those tied to Jeffrey Epstein” and only highlight tragedies “when politically convenient.”
Mr. Fry quickly condemned the remarks as both insulting and deeply out of touch. “Let me be clear: Kayla Hamilton was not just a random person,” he said in a statement to Fox Digital. “She was a young woman with a family and a future.”
Calling Ms. Crockett’s language “disgusting rhetoric” and “shameful behavior,” he added: “Sadly, this is what we’ve come to expect from Democrats, who will take any opportunity to downplay the tragedy of Americans killed by criminal illegal aliens. I expect Mrs. Crockett to issue a full, public apology to Kayla’s family and to every American who has suffered because of her party’s reckless, open-borders agenda.”
🚨 DISGUSTING BEHAVIOR: Rep. Jasmine Crockett just called Kayla Hamilton, a young girl murdered by an illegal alien, a “random dead person.” pic.twitter.com/pSqBF0RAc5
— House Judiciary GOP 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@JudiciaryGOP) September 10, 2025
The legislation, supported by Kayla’s mother, Tammy Nobles, is designed to address glaring security failures. “The Kayla Hamilton Act is necessary to ensure background checks of unaccompanied alien children occur before they are released,” Ms. Nobles said. “If that had happened in the case of Kayla’s murderer, authorities would have known he was an MS-13 gang member.”
Her daughter’s killer, Walter Javier Martinez, was a 17-year-old illegal immigrant with gang ties who had already amassed a criminal record in El Salvador.
He bore visible MS-13 tattoos, but the Department of Health and Human Services failed to identify or disclose this before placing him inside the United States. Martinez was later sentenced to 70 years in prison and, according to reports, confessed to multiple other murders and rapes.
The Kayla Hamilton Act seeks to close the loopholes exposed by Hamilton’s murder. Among its provisions:
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Background checks of unaccompanied alien children age 12 and older through their home countries.
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Screening for gang tattoos.
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Housing gang-affiliated minors in secure facilities.
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Barring illegal immigrants from sponsoring minors.
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Full data-sharing on sponsors with the Department of Homeland Security.
For Republicans, the legislation is a necessary safeguard against the failures of an overwhelmed system. For Democrats, the debate has become another test of how far they are willing to go in defending policies critics call “open borders.”
As the family of Kayla Hamilton pushes for change, the sharp words from Ms. Crockett have only deepened the partisan divide — and reminded voters how profoundly border policy can affect American lives.
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