The family of Kayla Hamilton, a 20-year-old woman brutally murdered in 2022, has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the Biden administration. [Source]
The case centers around the tragic death of Hamilton, who was raped and strangled with a phone charging cord by an illegal immigrant with known ties to MS-13, a notorious criminal gang.
Brian Claypool, the attorney representing Kayla’s mother, Tammy Nobles, expressed the family’s determination to seek justice and prevent future tragedies.
“We bring this landmark lawsuit in honor of Kayla to get answers on how this catastrophic failure occurred and help prevent another senseless murder. 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,” Claypool stated.
The lawsuit alleges a direct link between the Biden administration’s immigration policies and Hamilton’s death. The accused, a 16-year-old migrant from El Salvador, entered the U.S. in March 2022 amid a surge of undocumented immigrants, particularly children. [Source]
Despite having an MS-13 tattoo and a previous arrest in El Salvador for gang association, the youth was released into the community under the administration’s relaxed protocols for handling unaccompanied migrant children.
Claypool criticized the administration’s oversight in this case, noting the missed opportunity to prevent this tragedy. “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,” he lamented.
The Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Health and Human Services (HHS) are named as defendants in this lawsuit, reflecting the systemic issues at play.
Under current government protocols, unaccompanied migrant children like the accused are quickly transferred from DHS to HHS, which then works to release them into the community, even if they are in the country illegally. This process has come under intense scrutiny in light of Hamilton’s death.
While Homeland Security, in a brief statement, expressed sympathy for Hamilton’s family, they refrained from commenting further due to the pending litigation. HHS did not respond to inquiries about the case.
The family’s legal action coincides with Nobles’ scheduled testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee. This testimony is part of the ongoing impeachment proceedings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, bringing further attention to the administration’s immigration policies and their real-world consequences.
As the legal battle unfolds, the memory of Kayla Hamilton remains at its center, a somber reminder of the human cost of policy decisions.