The Department of Homeland Security missed signs that an illegal immigrant juvenile had ties to MS-13 when admitting him to the U.S., where he now stands accused of murdering a 20-year-old woman in Maryland.
The House Judiciary Committee says the 17-year-old illegal immigrant had previously been arrested in El Salvador for associating with MS-13 and had gang tattoos.
Yet Homeland Security caught and released the juvenile, turning him over to the Department of Health and Human Services, which then released him into the community.
The juvenile was arrested in January in connection with the death of Kayla Hamilton, who was sexually assaulted and strangled in Aberdeen, Maryland, last year.
The Judiciary Committee launched a probe into the case and found it littered with missteps and bungles by the government that allowed the boy to be out on the streets.
“It is quite likely that had Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas and the Department of Homeland Security adequately vetted this alien when he was apprehended at the border and had Secretary [Xavier] Becerra and the Department of Health and Human Services adequately vetted this alien before placement with a sponsor, the tragedy of Kayla‘s murder would have been avoided. The alien’s known gang affiliation would have resulted in placement in a secure facility for criminal UACs rather than allowing him to roam the streets of Aberdeen freely,” the committee concluded in an interim report.
Investigators said the juvenile arrived in the U.S. on March 23, 2022, as an Unaccompanied Alien Child, or UAC. That’s a designation the government gives to a migrant who claims to be under age 18 and who shows up at the border without a parent.
He told authorities his family paid $4,000 to a guide who smuggled him over the border and claimed he was fleeing gang violence in his home country.
He was one of 14,137 UACs to be caught entering the U.S. that month and one of 368,207 who entered the U.S. between January 2021 and April 2023.
That’s by far the largest UAC surge in history, and it has overwhelmed the feds, forcing them to cut corners in vetting and releasing the children.
Congressional investigators said those shortcuts proved deadly in this case.
Following the usual procedures for UACs from countries that aren’t contiguous with the U.S., the juvenile was quickly sent to HHS for care while authorities searched for a sponsor to take him in. On May 3, 2022, he was placed with someone whom he called a first cousin.
But investigators said his case files show he referred to the sponsor as an aunt, living in Maryland with multiple children. Yet the files in one place refer to the sponsor as a male who had no experience rearing children.
In the case files, HHS employees said the boy had “no behavioral issues” and “demonstrated good judgment and age-appropriate behaviors.”
“These conclusions, in light of his brutal murder of Kayla, were obviously wrong,” investigators said in their report Tuesday.
After Hamilton’s murder, when investigators identified the 17-year-old as a suspect, they found out about his MS-13 associations “by merely contacting El Salvadoran officials,” investigators said, suggesting that step was skipped by Homeland Security and HHS.
Even after the illegal immigrant was charged with murder and his gang tattoos and past criminal record were revealed, he was placed in a foster home with other children, endangering them, the Judiciary Committee said.
“Not all aliens are criminals, but even one crime committed against an American by a criminal illegal alien incentivized into this country by the Biden administration is one too many,” the House committee said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.