Mess with a dog and, if you’re here on a visa or are an undocumented immigrant, you’re going to get kicked out of the country and won’t be able to return.

That’s the message in the “Bill to Outlaw Wounding of Official Working Animals Act” or BOWOW Act.

The bill was triggered by a June incident at Virginia’s Dulles Airport where an immigrant from Egypt assaulted Freddie, a Customs and Border Protection agriculture detection dog. The beagle had found banned products in the man’s luggage.

Hamed Ramadan Bayoumy Aly Marie pleaded guilty to harming animals used in law enforcement. According to a CBP press release, he was credited with time served, ordered to pay the veterinarian’s fee and to immediately report to CBP for removal from the United States.

CBP agriculture specialists found 55 pounds of beef meat, 44 pounds of rice, 15 pounds of eggplant, cucumbers, and bell peppers, two pounds of corn seeds, and a pound of herbs in the luggage. All the agriculture products were seized, as they are barred from entering this country.

Freddie suffered contusions to his right forward rib area and is now back at work.

‘Zero tolerance’ for dog attackers

Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona, is the bill’s chief sponsor.

“The BOWOW Act sends a clear message that we will stand up for our four-legged friends and have zero tolerance for any immigrants who assault them,” he said in a statement.

Calvert got passionate support from Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove. At a House Judiciary Committee hearing last month on the bill, McClintock told Freddie’s story.

The congressman explained how Freddie was “found abandoned as a puppy along a Georgia road,” and how he and his fellow dog enforcers are “the most efficient and unobtrusive system we have” at airports to make sure people are following the law.

McClintock said Freddie’s attacker kicked the dog “with sufficient force to lift Freddie off the ground.”

As a result, the attacker “will never be allowed in our country again unless of course another Joe Biden becomes president.”

Democrats cite Kristi Noem’s dog

But that punishment raises a relevant point, said Democrats. There are already laws that deal with violent behavior.

“What happened here in this case is precisely what should have happened,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md. “We don’t need to be tampering with the law at this point.”

Some of his Democratic colleagues were annoyed that Republicans were even bringing this up.

After all, they recalled, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem once shot and killed her puppy, Cricket, after determining it was untrainable and overly aggressive.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., read passages at the hearing from Noem’s 2024 book describing the dog incident.

“There’s unanimity here on animal cruelty,” he said, but “the secretary of homeland security did not treat an animal the way we would want an animal to be treated.”

Rep. Dan Goldman, D-New York, talked about renaming the bill “The Kristi Noem Canine Relief Act of 2025.” The bill would not apply to Noem, a U.S. citizen.

But, said Goldman, “This renaming, I think, would really capture the true essence of the bill, which is that we really don’t want anybody to kill dogs, especially the Secretary of Homeland Security.”

The Republican-dominated committee approved the original legislation, and its next stop will be the full House.

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