A teenager from Maryland arrested as the lead suspect in the robbery, rape, and murder of an autistic American woman last summer was an illegal immigrant and known member of MS-13 in his home country.
Police in Aberdeen, Maryland, announced late last week the arrest of a 17-year-old Hispanic boy on Jan. 15 in connection to the strangulation-induced death of 20-year-old Kayla Hamilton in July 2022, according to a statement issued late last week.
The suspect had not been identified by police other than his age and as a citizen of El Salvador. The Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies, a nongovernmental organization that advocates tighter immigration laws, published a blog Sunday that stated the suspect had been allowed into the United States as an unaccompanied minor earlier in the Biden administration.
“The 17-year-old UAC allegedly strangled 20-year-old Kayla Hamilton to death in July 2022, only months after being released into the United States,” wrote Jon Feere, CIS director of investigations and the former senior adviser to the ICE director during the Trump administration. “While his illegal alien status has been reported, the fact that he entered as a UAC has not been reported until now.”
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Local police said in a statement that the federal agency U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement identified the suspect as a Salvadoran citizen who is known in his home country as a known member of MS-13, one of the most violent criminal gangs in the world.
DNA evidence recovered from the crime scene also matched DNA in federal databases. ICE did not respond to a request for comment about the circumstances by which it interacted with the suspect or at what point his DNA was collected by the government.
“The case raises a number of questions, and Congress must obtain a full accounting from the Biden administration officials running the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), now that is known that both departments played a role in the release of this dangerous individual,” said Feere.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for comment about if its Border Patrol or Office of Field Operations personnel at the U.S.-Mexico border had apprehended the suspect for illegally entering the country, conducted a background check, the results of that check, and if or when he was transferred to ICE or the Department of Health and Human Services given that HHS takes custody of all unaccompanied children after they are processed by Border Patrol.
More than 300,000 unaccompanied minors have crossed the land border in President Joe Biden’s first 22 months in office, starting Feb. 1, 2021.
The number of children swelled to all-time highs after Biden took office and immediately exempted children from a pandemic public health policy that had allowed border officials to turn away all children. Instead, children were to be taken into custody and released into the U.S. to approved sponsors, including illegal immigrant adults.
Children released to sponsors are expected to enroll in public schools, but the government is not obligated to notify local districts to expect a child and does not follow up with the sponsor to ensure a child is enrolled.
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First responders initially discovered Hamilton’s body on July 27, 2022. Police reported that they had responded to a cardiac arrest, though they did not disclose why or how they were notified of the incident.
When officers arrived, Hamilton was “suffering from injuries consistent with a homicide,” and they stated they found her deceased.
Hamilton had recently moved in with her 22-year-old boyfriend. The motive of the attack has not been disclosed.
The suspect is being held without bail at the Harford County Detention Center in Maryland.
