Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ) reflected on the 2018 passage of his AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act into law in a recent social media post on National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Awareness Day.
"One of the first things I did in the U.S. House was to partner with the late Senator John McCain to pass the Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act," Rep. Biggs recounted. "This legislation closed a loophole in the original AMBER Alert authorization that prevented Indian tribes from being eligible to apply for Department of Justice Grants to assemble a child abduction warning system on Native American reservations."
Rep. Biggs further explained that the bill was named after Ashlynne Mike, an 11-year-old Navajo girl who was abducted and murdered in May 2016. Despite Ashlynne's father filing a missing persons report within 3 hours, "authorities did not send an AMBER Alert until almost 10 hours after Ashlynne went missing."
Sadly, Ashlynne's attacker admitted she was still alive when he left her for dead, and she could have been saved if an AMBER Alert had been issued sooner.
"So, on this National Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Awareness Day, I remember Ashlynne's life - and how her tragic death inspired change for future generations of innocent people on Native American reservations," the Arizona congressman concluded. "May we never stop fighting for a country where all children across our land are afforded the same protections from these critical security resources. Rest in peace, Ashlynne. We love and miss you - always."
Biggs was not the only Arizona lawmaker bringing attention to the shockingly high number of missing and murdered Native Americans on Tuesday, as State Representative Mae Peshlakai (D-7) and Representative Adelita Gijalva (D-AZ), the latter describing it as "a human rights crisis, and silence is not an option."
