The grieving mother of a young autistic woman who was raped and murdered by a suspected MS-13 gang member in the U.S. illegally has filed a $100 million lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) for failing to do their jobs.
“Nobody at the border did their job and checked his background,” Tammy Nobles told NewsNation Prime.
(Video: YouTube)
Had they done a proper screening, she said, the 17-year-old El Salvadorian’s criminal ties would have been revealed and her daughter would be alive.
As BizPac Review previously reported, 20-year-old Kayla Hamilton was found raped and strangled to death with a phone cord in her Aberdeen, Maryland, home on July 27, 2022.
MS-13 gang member in US illegally arrested for the gruesome murder of 20-yr-old woman with autism https://t.co/aZLU3u5keI pic.twitter.com/cPFb51s87A
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) January 23, 2023
“Early in the investigation, a seventeen-year-old male became a person of interest and was later determined to be an undocumented non-citizen from El Salvador. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was able to verify that he was also listed in El Salvador as a member of Malva Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13),” the Aberdeen Police Department said at the time of the suspect’s arrest. “The suspect’s DNA was compared to evidence recovered at the crime scene by the Maryland State Police Forensic Sciences Division. The test results led to the issuance of an arrest warrant for First Degree Murder on January 14, 2023.”
Attorney Brian Claypool, who is representing the Nobles family, accused DHS of playing “Russian roulette” with Americans’ lives.
“We’re bringing this lawsuit because we’re tired of being held hostage in our own country,” he told NewsNation. “We’re tired of DHS playing Russian roulette with our lives, with Kayla’s life.”
“We’re alleging that two federal agencies catastrophically failed Kayla,” Claypool continued, adding that “they are failing everybody.”
“This could happen anywhere and to anybody,” the lawyer warned. “DHS just needs to be held accountable. All they had to do… was to follow their own protocol.”
Had they lifted the t-shirt of the teenage suspect, “they would have seen a gang-related tattoo,” he said. “And guess what? That would have disqualified him from entering this country.”
“He should have been sent back at that very second to El Salvador,” Claypool argued. “All they had to do was pick up the phone, make a phone call, and, guess what? On the list from El Salvador was this young man because he was arrested in July of 2020 for being involved in an illicit MS-13 gang. He would have been disqualified again from entering the country.”
DHHS “blew it too,” the lawyer said, when they called to verify that the suspect would be released to a known relative. He promptly ran away and “ends up in this trailer home as a roommate with lovely Kayla, that was leased out by another illegal immigrant.”
“The federal government has blood on their hands,” Claypool alleged. “They owed us a duty to protect Kayla and others in this country.”
In May 2023, Tammy Nobles testified before a House Judiciary subcommittee and raised alarms over the border crisis.
“For me, this is not a political issue, this is a safety issue for everyone living in the United States,” she told lawmakers. “This could have been anyone’s daughter, Kayla wasn’t doing anything wrong and she didn’t deserve to be murdered. I don’t want any other parents to live the nightmare that I am living.”
Mother of woman allegedly slain by MS-13 member sounds alarm over border crisis https://t.co/VWdtuyZVuG pic.twitter.com/FDy6pPPe0w
— BPR (@BIZPACReview) May 27, 2023
“The hardest part is they could have prevented it,” a tearful Nobles told NewsNation. “I could still have my daughter if they would have just done their jobs.”
The potentially explosive trial is scheduled for June 28.
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Melissa Fine is the former executive editor of Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and Poker
Digest magazines. She is a UCLA graduate, news junkie, and dedicated Stargate SG-
1 fan. Melissa currently lives with her dog and two cats in a tiny town in the Sierra
Nevada foothills.
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