Mom praises House for passing key immigration bill, bashes Crockett for dismissing daughter's murder
The mother of a 20-year-old girl tragically murdered by an illegal migrant blasted Rep. Jasmine Crockett for calling her daughter a "random dead person" after the House of Representatives voted 225 to 201 on Tuesday afternoon to pass the Kayla Hamilton Act in her daughter's name.
Tammy Nobles, Hamilton’s mother, told Fox News Digital that she believes the Biden administration’s lax immigration policies were responsible for the murder of her daughter, and pushed back on the rhetoric of Crockett's comments that her daughter's was being used as a GOP talking point.
"I'm so over the Democrat officials stating that the Republican Party is using Kayla’s story as a political stunt," Nobles told Fox News Digital. "Everything regarding Kayla and the Kayla Hamilton Act was what her mom wanted. I made it very clear in the beginning that I wanted a law in her name."
"All that the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Health and Human Services had to do was make one phone call to El Salvador," Nobles added. "They would have known that Walter Javier Martinez was an MS-13 gang member, and that he had a criminal record of illicit gang activity."
Hamilton was raped, tied up, assaulted and strangled to death by a 17-year-old illegal migrant and alleged MS-13 gang member, Walter Javier Martinez, according to prosecutors. He was sentenced to 70 years in prison this past April.
The bill, which was introduced by Rep. Russell Fry, R-S.C., would mandate the Secretary of the Department of Human Services (HHS) to consider whether UACs [unaccompanied alien children] are threats to themselves or their community.
Crockett referred to Hamilton as a "random dead person" while the bill was being debated in the House Judiciary Committee in September. Crockett has since launched a U.S. Senate bid.
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"That comment was not only cruel, it revealed a deeper unwillingness shared by numerous Democrats to acknowledge the real human cost of failed border and child placement policies," Fry told Fox News Digital. "I’ve also been appalled by the broader Democratic pushback to this bill, which puts politics and ideology ahead of basic public safety."
Fox News Digital reached out to Crockett but did not receive a response.
The legislation now heads to the Senate Judiciary Committee and will be led in the upper chamber by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.
"We owe it to Kayla and other victims of senseless tragedies to ensure comprehensive background and criminal record checks are conducted on unaccompanied alien children and potential sponsors prior to their placement, and I am glad we are one step closer to ensuring more thorough vetting is the law of the land," Cornyn told Fox News Digital in a statement.
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Hamilton's mother has been outspoken about the death of her daughter, joining President Donald Trump in campaign rallies and press conferences. She has even testified about immigration policy in front of Congress.
"To prevent such tragedies from happening again, the Kayla Hamilton Act will mandate background checks on unaccompanied minors and the sponsors, so that no person will be at risk," Nobles told Fox News Digital.
"No one else should ever again have to suffer the way my daughter Kayla did," Nobles added. "The Biden-Harris Administration’s policies prioritized the comfort of illegal aliens, like Kayla’s murderer, over the safety of innocent Americans."