Joni Ernst Shares ‘Heartbreaking Story’ Of Constituent Killed By Illegal Immigrant Drunk Driving

Forbes Breaking News

During a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) shared a story of a constituent killed by an undocumented immigrant.

Transcript

00:00Senator Ernst. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Secretary Noem. Thank you very much for

00:06being here today. I truly appreciate it. During your confirmation process, I had

00:13shared a story with you and it was a heartbreaking story about one of my

00:17constituents, Sarah Root. Sarah was killed by an illegal immigrant that was drunk

00:24driving with three times the blood alcohol content of the legal limit. Three

00:31times over the limit. Using a loophole in the federal law, that killer, he fled the

00:37country and he vanished for years. But thanks to your leadership, your

00:46leadership, and the work of many of the brave men and women of DHS and the State

00:51Department, Sarah's killer, was arrested in Honduras in a matter of days, days, after

01:00our conversation and was extradited back to the United States. He is in Omaha,

01:07Nebraska now, and he is going through the court system there. And believe you and

01:13me, Sarah's mother, Michelle Root, her father, Scott Root, and her brother, Scotty

01:19Root, thank you, day in and day out, and President Trump, for having the

01:25wherewithal to follow through to bring her killer to justice. So thank you. Thank

01:32you for that. Well thank you for telling Sarah's story. I know you had to for many

01:36many years. That was the first time Honduras actually extradited someone for

01:42homicide. And so I think it's very important the precedent we set, the

01:46relationship that we built there, so that we are able to get some justice for

01:49Sarah's family. And thank you for being passionate about her. And that just

01:53proves that telling your story and telling her story doesn't fall on deaf

01:58ears with this administration. It certainly doesn't. And I want to take this

02:02time and just to point out the difference in the administrations. So after this

02:09killer fled from prosecution in the United States, he was on ICE's most wanted list.

02:17That was in the Trump administration. When President Biden came into office, he

02:23actually took this killer, Edwin Mejia, off of the most wanted list. They weren't

02:29actively trying to find him. They didn't care about Sarah's plight, nor that of her

02:36parents. President Trump came back into office. And again, within that first month

02:44of President Trump being in office, and you being sworn in, we had located him in

02:50Honduras and was able to negotiate for the extradition of this killer back to the

02:58United States. This family deserves justice, and I'm glad that they are getting it. So

03:04thank you, Secretary Noem. Just a few moments ago, you said that you have

03:10provided the committee, quote, with 50,000 pages from COVID and the origins. I

03:16haven't seen any of those pages yet. Will you commit to ensuring that I am able to

03:24see those 50,000 pages? Yeah, certainly. They were given to the chairman at his request, and I'll

03:31certainly forward those to you as well. Those documents are up and your staff does have access

03:35to them. Okay, great. Thank you. I appreciate that. I know that the Biden administration had

03:41blocked us from seeing that information. So I think it's really, really important that those of

03:48us on the committee that have pursued the origins of COVID have the opportunity to review those

03:53documents. So thank you. Just in the remaining time that I have, I want to talk a little bit about

03:59the DOGE work that we have going on, and you've been a very good partner with DOGE. And I want to

04:05commend your recent efficiency. You've enhanced election integrity, and you've saved taxpayer

04:12dollars. And in October of 2024, my home state of Iowa uncovered over 2,000 cases of non-citizens,

04:212,000 cases of non-citizens registering to vote or voting after self-identifying as non-citizens

04:33at the DMV. This happens every day, folks. The previous administration, again, Joe Biden's

04:42administration, obstructed Iowa's request for immigrant verification records in the days before

04:49our federal election. This is unacceptable, and I'm grateful that you tackled this issue

04:56immediately. Some people may say, 2,000 people, no big deal. But I will remind you that in one

05:03of our congressional districts, in the case of Marionette Miller-Meeks, who's now a congresswoman,

05:09she won her race by six, six votes. It matters. Thank you, Secretary Noem, for doing the right thing,

05:23and I yield. Thank you. Thank you. We're going to try to do a quick round of five minutes one more

05:26time. I'm going to gavel at five minutes so the secretary knows, everybody knows, that's the end.

05:31We're going to try to move on to the next person to get you out of here. We talked a little bit about

05:36the wall.

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