Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Red Oak, says she will continue to push for answers in the death of an Iowa woman.  Twenty-one-year-old Sarah Root of Council Bluffs died after police say her car was rear-ended by a car driven by 19-year-old Eswin Mejia. Police say Mejia was in the country illegally, drunk driving and street racing.  Ernst says they want to know why Immigration’s and Customs Enforcement didn’t detain Mejia and he is believed to have fled the country.

“We have not heard back yet from ICE and we have contacted the agency and I have request a phone call from director (Sarah) Saldaña of Ice. She had appeared before our committee a number of weeks ago,” Ernst says.  Ernst and fellow Senator Charles Grassley have been pushing ICE for answers. “We are going to push and make sure that this fugitive is brought to justice. We have to do that, not only for the Root family, but we have to do it and force the issue to make sure that ICE  is protecting our American citizens, they need to know that this is an issue,” according to Ernst.

Root’s mother Michelle testified before the U-S House Judiciary Committee this week as they also investigate the case.  Ernst says it is important that ICE has the proper procedures in place. “Not just in this case, but there are other cases as well where we need to make sure ICE is following through,” Ernst says.

She says the president must rethink his policies and seriously reconsider them so that tragedies like this one are not replicated elsewhere.

(Radio Iowa)