Nearly all House Democrats on Friday voted against legislation that would allow for the deportation of migrants convicted of harming animals used in law enforcement. The measure, titled the Bill to Outlaw Wounding of Official Working Animals Act, or BOWOW Act, passed the House in a 228–190 vote, according to The Hill.
Republicans supported the bill unanimously, with 15 Democrats joining them, while 190 Democrats voted against it. The Democrats who voted with Republicans to pass the measure were Reps. Henry Cuellar (Texas), Don Davis (N.C.), Sharice Davids (Kan.), John Garamendi (Calif.), Jared Golden (Maine), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), Greg Landsman (Ohio), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.), Adam Gray (Calif.), Josh Riley (N.Y.), Eric Sorensen (Ill.), Tom Suozzi (N.Y.) and Eugene Vindman (Va.).
Under the measure, any non-citizen of the United States who is “convicted of, or who admits to having committed, an offense related to harming animals used in law enforcement is inadmissible and deportable.” In a post on X, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) accused Democrats of being “the party of PUNCHING PUPPIES” after most opposed the bill.
“The Democrats just decided to officially become the party of PUNCHING PUPPIES,” Johnson noted. “190 Democrats just voted to give illegal immigrants the RIGHT TO PHYSICALLY ABUSE American service dogs — serving with law enforcement protecting American citizens.”
“The level Democrats will go to protect illegal aliens instead of Americans is disturbing, disgusting, and dangerous,” the Speaker noted, while White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy and Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller remarked that the Democrats’ votes were “truly sickening.”
“Harming a law enforcement working animal is appalling and evil,” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) wrote in a post on X. “As a dog lover and someone who adamantly supports the working dogs who have served on the front lines, voting in favor of this bill was one of the easiest decisions of my congressional career.”
A bill introduced by Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) follows an incident in which an Egyptian national kicked and injured a dog used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The individual, Hamed Ramadan Bayoumy Aly Marie, 70, pleaded guilty to kicking a beagle named Freddie after the dog alerted agents to potential contraband in his bag.
The incident occurred at Washington Dulles International Airport, and a veterinarian later determined that Freddie, who was five years old, had suffered contusions in his right rib area, according to a press release from CBP.
Last week, meanwhile, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon announced that a comprehensive review conducted by the Department of Justice (DOJ) of approximately 50 to 60 million voter records had revealed hundreds of thousands of ineligible registrations.
The audit of voter registration records found more than 300,000 deceased individuals still listed as active voters, as well as tens of thousands of non-citizens who have already cast ballots in federal elections.
Dhillon’s team has been actively addressing the issue of inaccurate voter rolls since President Trump took office. In December 2025, a report noted that an initial review of 47.5 million records revealed over 260,000 deceased voters and thousands of illegal registrations.
The situation has now worsened, and the assessment thus far only covers a limited number of states that have agreed to cooperate.
“We have run some records for some states. So, I think we’ve run something between 50 and 60 million voter records so far. And, you know, during this president’s tenure, we have found hundreds of thousands of people who shouldn’t be on the voter rolls—people who are dead, people who have moved, and duplicate registrations,” Dhillon told Newsmax TV late last week.
“We have also found, separately, noncitizens on the voter rolls. And so now we’re doing our due diligence to identify the extent to which they may or may not have voted,” she continued. ““And that’s easy when you have a system where there’s no voter ID, right? Where ballots are being mailed to outdated voting lists. This is not a fiction or a fantasy.”