By Casey Harper (The Center Square)
The mother of a woman killed by a gang-affiliated illegal immigrant tearfully shared her story Tuesday during testimony before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Integrity, Security and Immigration Enforcement.
Tammy Nobles is the mother of Kayla Marie, a 20-year-old autistic woman who was raped and murdered last summer.
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In March of last year, officials apprehended Marie’s alleged killer illegally crossing into the US in Rio Grande City, Texas, just months before Marie’s death. The unaccompanied teen from El Salvador is allegedly affiliated with MS-13, which is primarily based in El Salvador and Honduras.
MS-13 is a violent gang that has extended its reach into the northern US in recent years. Their motto is “kill, rape and control”.
Nobles pointed to a flawed immigration system during his testimony, saying that because the suspect was a teenager and not an adult when he entered the US illegally, he was allowed to go live with his aunt in Maryland. He rented a room in the same trailer as Marie, the same trailer where she was soon found dead.
“Kayla’s killer lived there less than 5 days before he brutally murdered my daughter,” Nobles testified. “Kayla worked two jobs. She worked at a cleaning company and at the Weis supermarket. Kayla had autism but she was determined to live independently and make her way in this world. And my baby paid the ultimate price.”
The suspect was arrested in January of this year and charged with first degree murder using DNA evidence.
Nobles went into graphic detail before Congress about how her daughter died.
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“The killer walked into Kayla’s bedroom surprising her, grabbed her IPod charger and wrapped it around her throat and face while strangling her to death,” Nobles said. “Kayla grabbed her phone and called her boyfriend but it went to voice mail. The voicemail from the killer strangling Kayla lasted 2 minutes and 30 seconds. The killer then violently sexually assaulted Kayla. Kayla’s boyfriend came home from work to find her dead on the floor. Her charger cord was so tight around her neck and face that her boyfriend had to use her teeth to pry it off.”
Nobles told legislators that for her, this issue is not about politics, but about security.
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“This could have been anyone’s daughter,” he said. “Kayla wasn’t doing anything wrong and she didn’t deserve to be killed. I don’t want any other parent to live the nightmare I’m living. Now I am his voice and I am going to fight with everything I have to get his story told and raise awareness about the problem at the border. I will make sure that the memory of him lives on ”.
The nobles criticized government officials and said that they could have done more to prevent this from happening.
“The government could have made a phone call to the authorities in El Salvador and discovered that he was a gang member,” he said. But they didn’t. If we had stricter border policies, my daughter would still be alive today. Nothing will bring my daughter back or fix the pain of not having her here, but I want to prevent this from happening to someone else’s child. It’s not about immigration. This is about protecting everyone in the United States.”
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The testimony comes as illegal immigration to the United States has skyrocketed under the Biden administration. Like The Center Square above reportedFederal immigration data shows that the number of people entering the US illegally through the southern border as of April of this year is greater than the population of six US states.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Rodney Scott, a former border patrol officer who now works for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, testified about the explosion in illegal immigration and how it “has effectively transferred control of our southwest border into the hands of of the Mexican drug cartels. .”
“As the political leadership consistently ignored the guidance of career professionals and made more and more political decisions that resulted in the release of aliens into the US, the volume of illegal immigration predictably increased dramatically,” Scott testified. “I have observed and experienced firsthand the rapid degradation of our border security from order to total chaos. I watched the gains in border security that were made over three decades unravel and the economy and security of border communities in the US and Mexico spiral backwards.”
Distributed with permission from The Center Square.
