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Family of woman killed by illegal immigrant files $100 million lawsuit against Biden administration
Kayla Hamilton brutally murdered by MS-13 gang
member caught and released by Biden administration
The family of a 20-year-old woman slain in 2022 will file a $100 million wrongful death lawsuit arguing the Biden administration caught and released an undocumented immigrant who then brutally raped and strangled her with a phone charging cord.
Authorities would later figure out the suspect had MS-13 ties at the time he snuck into the U.S., but he was still caught and released under new relaxed policies the Biden administration implemented to deal with immigrant children without documentation.
“We bring this landmark lawsuit in honor of Kayla to get answers on how this catastrophic failure occurred and help prevent another senseless murder,” said Brian Claypool, the lawyer for Tammy Nobles, Kayla Hamilton’s mother.
Ms. Nobles is slated to testify Thursday to the House Homeland Security as part of impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
In social media posts, Mr. Claypool said the lawsuit will name both Homeland Security, which initially apprehended the juvenile, and Health and Human Services, which released him into the community.
The migrant came from El Salvador as a 16-year-old in March 2022, part of the unprecedented migrant surge — and particularly children — who illegally crossed the border under President Biden.
According to details of the case made public by Congress last year, the boy was apprehended and deemed an Unaccompanied Child or UC. That’s a designation the government gives to children caught crossing without a parent.
The boy told authorities his family paid $4,000 to a guide who smuggled him over the border, and he claimed to be fleeing gang violence.
In reality, he was affiliated with MS-13 in El Salvador. Police discovered that with one call to authorities in El Salvador, which lawmakers said begged the question of why Homeland Security and HHS didn’t do that before releasing him.
Mr. Claypool also said the juvenile had an MS-13 tattoo, which agents should have spotted at the border.
“The killer had been arrested in El Salvador in 2020 for being associated with an illicit gang. All DHS had to do was make one phone call to verify this and Kayla would be alive,” the lawyer said.
Homeland Security, in a statement, said employees take their jobs “very seriously” but wouldn’t go beyond that.
“Our hearts go out to Ms. Hamilton’s family. We do not comment on pending litigation,” the department said.
HHS didn’t respond to an inquiry for this story.
Under government protocols, unaccompanied migrant children are supposed to be quickly sent from Homeland Security custody to HHS, which then places them in shelters while working to release them into the community, despite being in the country illegally.
Family members are preferred as sponsors.
In this case, Mr. Claypool said the boy was released to “a nonverified sponsor who was not a family member.”
The House Judiciary Committee last year said the sponsor was a woman who identified herself as either a first cousin or an aunt.
Ms. Nobles, in testimony last year, said the woman, who was in the country illegally herself, “couldn’t handle” the boy and he went to live with a half-brother in a trailer home. The half-brother would soon kick the boy out, too, and he found a place in the same trailer park as Hamilton and her boyfriend.
Hamilton tried to call the boyfriend during the July 23, 2022, attack but her call went to voicemail. Ms. Nobles said the voicemail was a 2-minute, 30-second recording of the murder. When the boyfriend returned, he found a phone charger wrapped so tightly around Hamilton’s neck that he had to use his teeth to get it off, Ms. Nobles said.
In its case files, HHS employees said the boy had “no behavioral issues” and “demonstrated good judgment and age-appropriate behaviors.”
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