Teen MS-13 member still placed in foster care despite being murder suspect: GOP report

House Judiciary Committee Republicans on Tuesday released a bombshell interim report about the murder of a 20-year-old autistic woman, and congressional investigators revealed that the teenage suspect was an illegal migrant from El Salvador and an MS-13 gang member who was placed in foster care with other children while his homicide charge in the case was pending.

Kayla Hamilton was strangled to death in July 2022 in Aberdeen, Maryland, and the unidentified teen suspect was arrested in January. The following month, Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan started an investigation into Hamilton's death, and he released an interim report on the probe Tuesday. 

Jordan found that the suspect illegally entered the United States as an unaccompanied alien child in March 2022, just months before Hamilton's murder. He said that "the Biden Administration’s lax enforcement of immigration law allowed a violent criminal into the U.S." and if the migrant was adequately vetted, it is "quite likely" Hamilton's murder could have been avoided.

The illegal migrant said that his family paid a guide $4,000 to smuggle him to the border, per the report. The migrant's file shows that he was arrested in 2020 by El Salvador police for being associated with the violent MS-13 gang and U.S. police found in August 2022 that he had tattoos affiliated with gang activity.

"In addition to having indications of the alien’s criminality, the alien’s case file also shows that while his homicide charge was pending and after his affiliation with MS-13 was known, authorities placed him in a foster home with other children," the report also states. Pending criminal charges mean that the case has not been resolved by a dismissal, a guilty plea or a verdict, according to Lawyers.com.

"Specifically, in file notes from August 2022, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official expressed concern for the safety of the other children present in the foster home with this violent alien. It is unclear, however, from the case file how long the alien remained there after these concerns were raised or if any children were harmed as a result of his placement there," the report also states.

The report comes as Hamilton's mother, Tammy Nobles, testified to the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. She told "Fox & Friends First" earlier in the day that she wants a more secure border. 

Madeleine Hubbard is an international correspondent for Just the News. Follow her on Twitter or Instagram.