A Maryland mother said Thursday if government agencies did their jobs, her daughter, who was raped and murdered by an alleged MS-13 gang member, would still be alive.
Tammy Nobles' autistic daughter, Kayla Hamilton, was raped and strangled to death three days after her 20th birthday in 2022. A teen with alleged ties to the MS-13 gang has been charged in her death and is awaiting trial.
Nobles joined "Fox & Friends First" before testifying at a second impeachment hearing for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Capitol Hill over the migrant crisis at the southern border.
DOJ RENEWS SCOTUS PUSH TO ACT AFTER TEXAS SEIZES BORDER AREAS, BLOCKS BORDER PATROL FROM ENTERING
"She was brutally murdered and raped in her room, and he strangled her with the phone cord. And then he just robbed her of $6, and he just left her on the floor like trash and went to lunch with his half brother like nothing happened," Nobles said.
"He had a record, a criminal record in El Salvador in 2020. And he also had gang tattoos. All they had to do was make one phone call to pull up his criminal record in El Salvador to find out… he was on the list for and listed as a known gang member of MS-13. Those two things should have kept him from entering the country."
Republican lawmakers have accused Mayorkas of a "dereliction of duty" and a "willful violation of his oath" in his handling of the border, where there have been record levels of migrant encounters.
The House Homeland Security Committee kicked off their final impeachment hearing Thursday morning with Nobles as a witness.
"Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services didn't do their jobs. If they had done their job and properly vetted and checked her murderer, my daughter would still be alive today," Nobles told Fox News. "He wouldn't have been allowed to go from Texas all the way to Maryland."
Texas is locked in a battle with the federal government over its seizure of a park along the Rio Grande River, with DHS claiming the move is unconstitutional and impedes Border Patrol operations along the border.
Texas took control of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass, an area that had previously served as a staging area for processing during migrant surges in the busy crossing area, on Wednesday.
"Texas’s actions are clearly unconstitutional and are actively disrupting the federal government’s operations. We demand that Texas cease and desist its efforts to block Border Patrol’s access in and around the Shelby Park area and remove all barriers to access in the Shelby Park area," the letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a copy of which was obtained by Fox News Digital, says.
The Texas Military Department said the move was to prepare for future illegal immigrant surges and to stop organizations that "perpetuate illegal immigrant crossings in the park and greater Eagle Pass area."
The Biden administration has already complained to the Supreme Court about the matter, as part of ongoing litigation over the Biden administration's cutting of razor wire set up by Texas to stop illegal crossings. The administration has sued separately over the setting up of buoys in the Rio Grande and a recent anti-illegal immigration law signed into law by Abbott that allows state and local law enforcement to arrest illegal immigrants.
Meanwhile, there were over 302,000 migrant encounters in December alone after a record-setting 2.4 million encounters in FY23.
On "Fox & Friends" Thursday, a New Hampshire mother who lost her son to fentanyl poisoning said it's "hard to understand" why the federal government is opposed to Texas securing the border.
"I was very frustrated with Joe Biden's administration. I feel like nothing has been done. I was really feeling like they don't care about the numbers of people that are dying from fentanyl. … I would really like Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, who's the border czar, to go down to the border and address the issue," said Andrea Cahill.
Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.
