1. United States
2. Utah
3. Letter

I urge you to oppose HR 4371, the Kayla Hamilton Act, when it reaches the Senate. While this legislation claims to protect children, it does the opposite by exposing vulnerable minors to additional harm and stripping away critical safeguards. The bill allows authorities to prolong detention of unaccompanied children who have family in the United States by prohibiting their release to parents and sponsors unless they are U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents. This keeps children separated from their families and places them in secure facilities that function as prisons. It gives the DHS secretary authority to declare a child a flight risk without evidentiary standards or judicial oversight, removing essential due process protections. Many of these children are victims of serious violence, including gang violence and sex trafficking. The bill subjects them to invasive body searches to determine gang membership based on tattoos or markings, a method that has proven unreliable. During the first Trump administration, the ACLU sued over the seizure of children by ICE who lacked actual gang ties. In El Salvador's CECOT prison, many were identified as gang members purely based on benign tattoos. This legislation would place children in facilities with limited access to lawyers, away from family, and without quality medical care. Perhaps most troubling, HR 4371 bypasses the Administrative Procedures Act, allowing the federal government to create new regulations related to detention of vulnerable children without notice or input from medical or child welfare experts. This removes the voices of professionals who understand child welfare and trauma-informed care from critical policy decisions. The bill passed the House by a vote of 225 to 201, with only seven Democrats joining all Republicans in support. I ask you to stand with child welfare experts and vote against this harmful legislation that leverages tragedy to expand government power over detained minors while making them less safe.