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.”

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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.

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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. 

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.

EXCLUSIVE: Former Vice President Mike Pence says that a national voter ID law “is truly an idea whose time has come.”

In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Pence urged the Senate to “make voter ID the law of the land in all 50 states.” The Senate is currently debating the SAVE America Act, which is strongly championed by Pence’s former boss, President Donald Trump.

The SAVE Act, which stands for Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, narrowly passed the GOP-controlled House in February mostly along party lines. But it’s stalled in the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the chamber, far short of the 60-vote threshold needed to pass the bill.

The federal bill would require strict voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements across the country. Republicans say the bill is necessary to secure election integrity.

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“I think requiring our voters to show photo ID at the ballot box or prove American citizenship is simply an idea whose time has come,” Pence emphasized.

And the former Indiana governor added, “I’m proud of the fact that the state of Indiana, 15 years ago, was one of the first states to adopt voter ID laws. Went all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States and was upheld. It became model legislation for many states around the country.”

While polls indicate the vast majority of Americans — regardless of the political affiliation — support voter IDs at the polls and preventing noncitizens from voting in federal elections, Democrats argue the bill is not needed, since citizenship is already a requirement to vote and instances of noncitizen voting are rare.

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Democrats and voting rights groups also charge that the federal bill would create unnecessary barriers, making it harder for voters to cast a ballot. And longtime Senate Democratic leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York has framed the SAVE Act as “Jim Crow 2.0.”

Pence noted that “the time, place and manner of elections under the Constitution is governed by the states. But the federal government has, under our Constitution, the ability to set certain conditions and parameters, and I believe the Save ACT falls well within the constitutional prerogative of the Congress.”

The former vice president, through his policy and advocacy organization Advancing American Freedom, last month urged Congress to pass the bill.

Pence reiterated his stance in his Fox News Digital interview, noting, “We have championed the SAVE America Act since it was first introduced, and will continue to. I’d urge every member of the Senate to set politics aside, cast a vote to restore public confidence in election integrity in this country.”

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Pence earned the ire of Trump’s supporters five years ago, when he dismissed the president’s unproven claims of massive voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and certified former President Joe Biden’s electoral college victory. The certification was upended for hours by the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol, during which some of the rioters chanted “Hang Mike Pence.”

“We all remember the election controversies of six years ago. We saw states that literally changed the rules in the midst of COVID for how votes would be counted,” Pence recollected. “There was never any evidence of widespread fraud that would change the outcome of the election, but it undermined public confidence, and it’s one of the reasons we’ve strongly supported election reform in states across the country.”

And the former vice president reiterated, “I truly do believe that making sure the American people have confidence that those that are voting are citizens of this country, and that voter ID becomes the law of the land is truly an idea whose time has come.”