It was a moment that landed with a thud in the chamber — and a gasp outside it.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) ignited fury Wednesday after she referred to Kayla Hamilton — the 20-year-old Maryland woman brutally murdered by an MS-13 gang member in the U.S. illegally — as a “random dead person” during debate on a House Judiciary bill written in Hamilton’s name.
Hamilton’s story is harrowing: a young woman sexually assaulted, restrained, and strangled to death by Walter Javier Martinez, a 17-year-old who had entered the country under Unaccompanied Alien Child status. In April, Martinez was sentenced to 70 years in prison — punishment, but no balm for the life lost.
Yet on Capitol Hill, her name became a flashpoint. “You take a situation, and then you exploit what has happened to not only that person, but you exploit those families, and you make it a game,” Crockett shouted across the aisle. “Stop just throwing a random dead person’s name on something for your own political expediency.”
Before that eruption, Crockett had accused Republicans of hypocrisy, saying they ignored the alleged victims of Jeffrey Epstein while suddenly elevating Hamilton’s case. “Stop pretending like you care,” she told GOP members.
And then, the summation: “Y’all find one terrible situation that took place, and then you say that person’s name, and you wear it out, and you make it political.”
The words echoed — cold, clinical, and in the ears of many, callous. For Republicans, it was proof of a party out of touch with pain. For Hamilton’s grieving family, it was another wound.
Watch the clip below:
🚨 WTF?! Jasmine Crockett just referred to Kayla Hamilton, an autistic girl R*PED AND STRANGLED to death by an El Salvadoran illegal, as a “RANDOM DEAD PERSON”
This piece of trash is out of control.
Kayla would still be alive today without Democrats like Crockett.
The Kayla… pic.twitter.com/7pWbzR8Lsv
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 10, 2025
