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Almost all Democrats opposed legislation Thursday that targets nonhumans who harm law enforcement animals.
Lawmakers voted 228-190 mostly along party lines to approve the measure, with just 15 Democratic lawmakers voting “yes.” All Republicans voted in favor of the legislation.
The Outlawing Injury to Working Animals (BOWOW) bill, introduced by Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., would make any citizen convicted of or who pleads guilty to harming animals used in law enforcement deported and barred from return.
“The dogs and horses on the front lines of our law enforcement efforts in partnership with our officers deserve our protection,” Calvert said when introducing the law. “[It] it sends a clear message that we will stand up for our four-legged friends and have zero tolerance for foreigners who abuse them.”
The Dome of the US Capitol building is seen through a temporary security fence as a US Capitol police officer walks a dog along the West Front of the US Capitol Building on March 4, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
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Calvert cited an incident at Dulles Airport in June 2025 when Hamed Aly Marie, a traveler from Egypt, kicked a police K-9 that was screening his luggage and seized contraband. This foreigner, who was immediately arrested by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), pleaded guilty to brutally assaulting a police animal and returned to Egypt.
The California Republican bill would have made Marie eligible for deportation and inadmissible to the United States.
“Don’t we all agree that kicking a 5-year-old beagle at an airport should disqualify a foreigner from re-entering our country?” Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif, said in support of the measure on Thursday.
Most Democrats oppose this law because they say that offenders could be deported under the existing law.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democrat of New York, speaks before an upcoming House vote on funding for the Department of Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on March 5, 2026. (Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
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Democrats also raised concerns that Calvert’s measure would violate the due process rights of immigrants by allowing their removal before obtaining a formal conviction.
“This is what America is talking about: Donald Trump’s unsanctioned, undisclosed war of choice,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., on the House floor Thursday. “What are the MAGA Republicans in Congress talking about this week? They’re talking about the BOWOW Act.”
The legislation is likely to be dead on its way to the Senate given the expected opposition from Democrats in that chamber.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., speaks to reporters outside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office in Washington, DC, 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 non-citizens who commit fraud in the United States. All GOP lawmakers — and 20 Democrats — backed a measure Wednesday that would make noncitizens convicted of or admitting to defrauding the government eligible for deportation and barred from future entry.
Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., one of the most vulnerable Democrats running for re-election, strongly opposed the move.
