Mom of MS-13 murder victim confronts Democrat lawmaker’s ‘trap’ question at Senate border hearing

Tammy Nobles says she refused to fall into one Democratic lawmaker’s “trap” when a line of questioning during a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday turned into a clash over immigration.

Sen. Alex Padilla of California pressed a panel of invited speakers that included Nobles, angel mom Marie Vega and others touched by the illegal immigration topic during the hearing, asking them to raise their hand if they believed “all immigrants are criminals.”

Nobles, whose 20-year-old daughter Kayla Hamilton was murdered by illegal immigrant and MS-13 gang member Walter Martinez in July 2022, fired back with the question, “Are you talking about legal immigrants or are you talking about regular immigrants?” before a back-and-forth proceeded.

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Nobles told “Fox & Friends First” on Wednesday that she felt the question was designed to “trap” Vega, who was testifying about the murder of her son, Javier “Harvey” Vega Jr., at the hands of an illegal immigrant during former President Barack Obama’s second term in 2014.

“I think he was trying to get her trapped, and then I just jumped in and was like, ‘What do you mean? Do you mean illegal immigrants that didn’t come the right way? Or do you mean legal immigrants who did it the right way?’ 

“I think he was trying to trap us into saying something that [would trip us up],” she alleged.

“I didn’t let him do that… You can’t say all migrants. You can’t put them all in the same category,” she added.

During the hearing, Padilla challenged the Trump administration’s rhetoric that their hardline approach to going after the alleged “worst of the worst” is rectifying a problem exacerbated by the Biden administration.

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“The way they present it, the way they talk about President Biden and prior Democratic administrations [suggests] it was never a priority for Democratic administrations to go after criminals, and that Democrats and Democratic administrations just didn’t care about the presence of dangerous people living in our communities,” he said.

“[That’s] simply not true,” he continued, before pointing to an immigration official who affirmed his suggestion that ICE agents were not discouraged from enforcing the law under Biden’s tenure.

Nobles is now encouraging Congress to pass the Kayla Hamilton Act, introduced by South Carolina Republican Rep. Russell Fry, to tighten existing loopholes regarding how the federal government handles unaccompanied minor children.

Tuesday’s speaker panel also included Alejandro Barranco, a U.S. Marine veteran who says his illegal immigrant father was forcibly detained by ICE agents while working at his landscaping job in California last month. 

“These people had no warrant for him and no reason to chase him and beat him… I believe my father was racially profiled… I do believe the vast amount of undocumented people in this country are here to work and support the country as well as raising children like my brothers and me…

“My father, like so many others, deserves a fair chance to stay in the country he calls home. This country is better because of people like my dad. It’s time our policies reflected that,” he said. 

Fox News’ Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.