A fight we must win: vetting unaccompanied minors and their sponsors

H.R. 4371, the Kayla Hamilton Act, is before the House Rules Committee today and could reach the House floor as early as tomorrow. The bill is named for Kayla Hamilton, a 20-year-old Maryland woman who was brutally murdered by an unaccompanied alien “child” who had been released to a sponsor before any background checks were completed.

Authorities later discovered that the suspect was a known MS-13 gang member with a criminal history in El Salvador–information that could have been obtained with a single phone call to Salvadoran authorities. That call was never made. The system failed, and a young woman lost her life.

Rep. Russell Fry (SC) is leading the effort to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again. His bill would restore basic safeguards by:

• Require information sharing between Health and Human Services and DHS;
• Prohibit the placement of children with sponsors who are in the country illegally;
• Bar the release of minors with gang affiliations.

These are not radical reforms. They are the minimum standards any credible immigration system should meet.

The ongoing consequences of the border crisis

While border encounters have recently dropped to historic lows, the damage from the Biden administration’s border policies is still unfolding. During the crisis years, nearly 500,000 migrant minors were released into the United States–often with little oversight and few safeguards.

The consequences are grim:

• Most of them have become child laborers working in dangerous and illegal situations.
• The Biden Administration placed 11,000 unaccompanied children with unvetted sponsors; and failed to conduct home studies for 80,000 children under 12 years of age.
• 16% of unaccompanied children were given to sponsors w/o a background check; another 19% were placed before the check was finished.
• Internal reviews found evidence of fraud in over 70% of the case files.
• A government hotline for unaccompanied minors left 65,000 calls unanswered.

The Kayla Hamilton Act is a commonsense first step toward preventing this from happening again. It will protect unaccompanied alien children by preventing their placement with sponsors who are criminals, traffickers, sex offenders and child abusers. More than 500,000 children were encountered at our borders under the Biden administration and put in harm’s way, many released to be exploited and many others lost because of poor management. This bill will drive down illegal border crossings of children and strengthen vetting of sponsors while at the same time ensuring that children, while they await their court proceedings, are placed in secure and safe settings.

Unfortunately, there are other efforts underway re-open these loopholes.

Cortez Masto risks another border crisis

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (NV) has introduced S. 3322 to undo the safeguards that helped end the surge of unaccompanied alien children (UACs). Her bill would:

• Weaken age-verification standards, letting adults pose as minors and making it easier for traffickers to “recycle” children;
• Block HHS from sharing information with DHS, shielding illegal-alien sponsors from enforcement and making it harder to track where children end up;
• Create fee exemptions that incentivize abuse of the unaccompanied alien children system.

In short, S. 3322 would reopen the very loopholes that enabled child exploitation on a scale not seen in a century.

A Clear Choice

Between these two competing visions, the choice could not be clearer. The Kayla Hamilton Act prioritizes child safety, public safety, and basic accountability. Sen. Cortez Masto’s bill risks reviving the chaos, exploitation, and tragedy that defined the height of the border crisis.

This is a fight we must win.