1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Today I take pen in hand to write and urge you to I oppose H.R. 4371, the Kayla Hamilton Act., another Republican bill designed to play to emotional tragedy, while setting up more children for emotional trauma. While the tragedy that befell Kayla Hamilton and her family is heartbreaking, this legislation fails to address violent crime effectively and instead creates harmful barriers for vulnerable children seeking safety and family reunification. Here’s one passage from the bill: “…conduct an examination of the unaccompanied alien child to determine if such child has any gang-related tattoos and other gang-related markings.” Easy to see how that can be exploited by this Administration’s inhumane ICE agents. These young people are often victims themselves, not threats to our communities. This is essentially legalizing child abuse! The second provision eliminates lawful asylum seekers and H-1B visa holders as sponsors for unaccompanied alien children. This keeps children separated from their own parents who have followed legal pathways to seek asylum or work authorization. Forcing children to remain in HHS custody when they have family members legally present in the United States is both cruel and counterproductive. This is exploitation and is tantamount to the trafficking the bill is allegedly supposed to prevent. Most troubling is the requirement that HHS report to DHS the immigration status of every person living in a sponsor's household. This provision diverts critical law enforcement resources away from tracking down violent criminals and instead focuses on surveilling law-abiding families. It will discourage relatives from coming forward to sponsor children, leaving more minors in government custody at taxpayer expense. Effective immigration reform must balance security with humanity. Therefore, I urge you to oppose H.R. 4371 and instead support legislation that protects public safety without punishing vulnerable children or separating families who have followed our legal immigration processes. Our immigration system needs reform, but this bill creates more problems than it solves. Oppose. Vote NO. Thank You.