12/20/2025
The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed the Kayla Hamilton Act, named for a Harford County 20-year-old who was murdered in 2022.
The bill will be considered by the U.S. Senate, and if passed and signed by President Donald Trump, extensive background checks for “unaccompanied alien children” entering the country would be required. Trump, a Republican, posted on social media that the House vote is “a huge win for public safety.”
Hamilton, of Aberdeen, had high-functioning autism and was killed in July 2022 by then-16-year-old Walter Javier Martinez, of El Salvador. Martinez illegally entered the U.S. in March 2022 and was part of the violent street gang MS-13, according to his defense attorneys and the Harford County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Martinez pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in August 2024 in Harford County Circuit Court and was sentenced to life in prison, with all but 70 years suspended.
📸: Courtesy of the Aberdeen Police Department
