A bill Senator Joni Ernst and the rest of Iowa’s congressional delegation has lobbied for since 2017 has been added to legislation that cleared the U-S Senate Monday night.
Sarah’s Law was named for Sarah Root of Council Bluffs who was killed nearly nine years ago by a drunk driver who was in the country illegally. Senator Joni Ernst says the man responsible for the 21-year-old Iowan’s death escaped justice because of a legal loophole.
Omaha Police said the man arrested for Sarah Root’s death on January 31st of 2016 had a blood alcohol level three times above the legal limit, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to take him into custody.
Sarah’s Law would make it mandatory for federal authorities to detain illegal immigrants charged with the death or serious injury of a person. The proposal has been added to the Lakin Riley Act, which requires federal detention for illegal immigrants charged with theft or burglary. Riley was a nursing student, killed nearly a year ago in Georgia by a Venezuelan who’d been arrested for shoplifting and released before the murder. Ernst says without passage of these combined proposals, the deaths of Sarah Root and Lakin Riley are doomed to be repeated.
The Lakin Riley Act, with Sarah’s Law added to it, is the first piece of legislation to win Senate passage in 2025. The House approved the Lakin Riley Act earlier this month but must pass the combined bills before the legislation goes to President Trump’s desk.