An Egyptian man walked into Dulles Airport, kicked a 5-year-old beagle working a CBP checkpoint, and pleaded guilty.
House Republicans passed a bill this week to make sure that never happens without consequences.
Then a senior House Democrat stood up and explained why the whole thing is a waste of everyone's time.
House Democrats Vote Against Deporting Illegal Aliens Who Assault Police Dogs
The Bill to Outlaw Wounding of Official Working Animals – the BOWOW Act – passed the House 228-190 in a near-party-line vote.
It does one thing: noncitizens who harm law enforcement animals – dogs and horses – become deportable and permanently inadmissible.
Every single Republican who voted backed it.
Just 15 Democrats crossed over.
The incident behind it happened June 24, 2025. Hamed Aly Marie, a 70-year-old Egyptian national, arrived at Dulles on a flight from Cairo.
Freddie – a 5-year-old CBP agriculture detection beagle – alerted to his luggage. When the handler began questioning Marie, he kicked Freddie hard enough to lift the 25-pound dog off the ground, bruising his ribs.
Marie was arrested, pleaded guilty the next day to malicious assault on a police animal, and departed on a flight back to Egypt.
Under existing law, nothing barred him from ever returning.
Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif., introduced the BOWOW Act to fix that.
"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 asked on the House floor.
Police horses patrol borders, crowd control operations, and urban beats across America — doing the same dangerous work, with no protection against the same gap in immigration law.
Raskin Explains Why Protecting Police Dogs Is Redundant
Rep. Jamie Raskin – ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee – went to the floor to explain his opposition.
"It's against the law now to kick a police dog," Raskin said during a markup hearing in November, "but the opportunity to introduce a redundant bill was apparently impossible for us politicians to pass up."
He also told colleagues he was "unaware of any mad rush of immigrants roaming the country and attacking police animals."
While Raskin lectured colleagues about redundancy, he found time for a separate floor speech calling Trump's military operation in Iran an "unauthorized, undeclared war of choice."
"Here's what America is talking about: Donald Trump's unauthorized, undeclared war of choice," Raskin said. "What are MAGA Republicans in Congress talking about this week? They're talking about the BOWOW Act."
Democrats also argued that making a noncitizen deportable before a formal conviction infringes on due process rights.
175 Democrats voted no.
Democrats Have Been Blocking Police Deportation Bills Since 2024
This isn't the first time House Democrats have killed deportation bills tied to law enforcement.
In May 2024, 148 Democrats voted against the Detain and Deport Illegal Aliens Who Assault Cops Act – requiring federal law enforcement to detain illegal aliens charged with assaulting police officers, firefighters, and first responders.
AOC voted no. Pramila Jayapal voted no. Ayanna Pressley voted no.
That bill passed anyway, 265-148, with 54 Democrats crossing the aisle.
Every time Republicans bring a bill connecting illegal aliens to harm done to American law enforcement, the Democrat caucus fights it.
The argument is always the same: existing law already covers it, due process is at risk, the bill is political theater.
What that argument never addresses is the actual gap — the one that let a man kick a federal working dog at an airport, plead guilty, and walk out of the country with the legal right to come back.
Republicans close that gap. Democrats call it redundant.
That's not a procedural disagreement. That's a values disagreement — and voters notice.
The BOWOW Act now goes to the Senate, where it needs 60 votes to clear the filibuster.
Senate Democrats will almost certainly kill it the same way House Democrats tried to.
Raskin called protecting police dogs a waste of legislative time.
Freddie the beagle disagrees.
Sources:
- Adam Pack, "House Democrats vote against deporting immigrants who harm police dogs, horses," Fox News, March 19, 2026.
- "House passes bill targeting noncitizens, foreign nationals who harm police animals," The Hill, March 19, 2026.
- "Full List of Democrats Who Voted Against Deporting Migrants Who Attack Cops," Newsweek, May 16, 2024.
- "148 House Dems vote against deporting illegal migrants who attack police officers," National Desk, May 16, 2024.
- Sen. Ted Budd, "Senate Democrats Block Budd Amendment to Make Assaulting Police a Deportable Offense," budd.senate.gov, March 8, 2024.
