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FIRST ON FOX: The father and brother of a young woman killed by an illegal immigrant will be in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday night watching President Donald Trump deliver his State of the Union address, after his administration helped track down the man who ended the woman’s life.
Sarah Root, a 21-year-old Iowa native, was killed in Nebraska hours after she graduated from Bellevue University by a drunk driver whose blood alcohol content was more than three times the legal limit.
The man, Eswin Mejia, was in the U.S. illegally at the time of the incident in January 2016. He was arrested and released on bond the following month and fled the country, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
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President Donald Trump delivers his joint address to Congress at the U.S. Capitol on March 4, 2025. (Kent Nishimura/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Then-candidate Donald Trump was critical of the Obama administration’s handling of the case.
The Trump administration later tracked Mejia down in Honduras and extradited him to the U.S. in March 2025. He was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.
Sarah Root’s father and brother will attend in-person as Trump delivers his primetime address to Congress on Tuesday evening, thanks to an invitation from Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Iowa.
Eswin Mejia sits in custody after being extradited from Honduras to the United States to face charges in the 2016 drunken-driving death of Iowa woman Sarah Root. (Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem)
“I think that the message it sends is that, under President Trump, that we will find you. I mean, if you’re an illegal criminal in this state or in this country, we will find you, and you will get deported, or you will be prosecuted. I think that is the message loud and clear,” Feenstra told Fox News Digital.
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He said Sarah Root’s father, Scott Root, was present at the White House when Trump signed the Laken Riley Act into law last year.
The anti-illegal immigrant bill also included an amendment named after Sarah Root that would require Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain illegal immigrants charged with seriously injuring or killing someone.
Rep. Randy Feenstra speaks during Iowa’s Roast and Ride at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines, Iowa, on Oct. 11, 2025. (Cody Scanlan/The Des Moines Register/Imagn)
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“Scott was at the White House with me during the signing of the bill. And he got to know President Trump, so now to be there at the State of the Union — that is really, really a big deal,” Feenstra said.
Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration has been a primary focus of his administration thus far, after his criticism of both former President Barack Obama and former President Joe Biden’s handling of the issue.
