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Nearly all Democrats opposed legislation Thursday targeting noncitizens who harm law enforcement animals.
Lawmakers voted 228-190 largely along party lines to approve the measure, with just 15 Democratic lawmakers voting “yes.” All Republicans who voted supported the legislation.
The Bill to Outlaw Wounding of Official Working Animals (BOWOW) Act, introduced by Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., would make any noncitizen who is convicted of or admits to harming animals used in law enforcement operations deportable and not allowed to return.
“The dogs and horses on the front lines of our federal law enforcement efforts alongside our officers deserve our protection,” Calvert said upon introducing the legislation. “[It] sends a clear message that we will stand up for our four-legged friends and have zero tolerance for any immigrants who assault them.”
A police dog joins other K-9s from over 100 agencies in Long Beach, Calif., on Oct. 12, 2005. (Jeff Gritchen/Digital First Media/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
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Calvert cited an incident at Dulles Airport in June 2025 when Hamed Aly Marie, an Egyptian traveler, kicked a police K-9 that was screening his luggage and caught smuggled produce. The foreign national, who was promptly arrested by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), pleaded guilty to malicious assault on a police animal and returned to Egypt.
The California Republican’s legislation would have made Marie eligible for deportation and inadmissible to the United States.
“Can’t we at least all agree that kicking a 5-year-old beagle at an airport should disqualify a foreign national from entering our country ever again?” Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif, said in support of the measure Thursday.
A majority of Democrats opposed the legislation because they argued that offenders could already be deported under existing law.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries speaks before an upcoming House vote on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on March 5, 2026. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
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Democrats also raised concerns that Calvert’s measure would infringe on legal immigrants’ due process rights by allowing for their removal before obtaining a formal conviction.
“Here’s what America is talking about: Donald Trump’s unauthorized, undeclared war of choice,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said on the House floor Thursday. “What are MAGA Republicans in Congress talking about this week? They’re talking about the BOWOW Act.”
The legislation will likely be dead on arrival in the Senate given expected opposition from Democrats in that chamber.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., speaks to reporters outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office in Washington, D.C., on July 22, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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In addition to the BOWOW Act, House Republicans also passed legislation this week seeking to crack down on noncitizens who commit fraud in the United States. All GOP lawmakers — and 20 Democrats — supported a measure on Wednesday that would make noncitizens who are convicted of or admit to defrauding the government eligible for deportation and banned from future entry.
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., one of the most vulnerable Democrats running for re-election, notably opposed the measure.