Family of Iowa grad killed by illegal immigrant to attend Trump’s State of the Union

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).

Then-candidate 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.

‘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.

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.

‘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, after his criticism of how the issue was handled by former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.