Letter to William Barr, Attorney General - Grassley, Ernst, Sasse Urge Barr to Support Sarah's Law

Letter

Dear General Barr,

Congratulations on your recent nomination to serve again as Attorney General of the United States. As members of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, we write to you today to follow up on a line of questioning by Senator Ernst during your recent confirmation hearing.

As Senator Ernst related, in January of 2016 an illegal alien, Edwin Mejia, was street racing while intoxicated in Omaha, Nebraska when he violently crashed his pickup truck into the back of another vehicle. Inside the other vehicle was a young woman named Sarah Root. Ms. Root, a Council Bluffs, Iowa native who had graduated college just hours before, was rushed to the hospital, where she died from her injuries. In light of Mejia's past encounters with law enforcement that included a skipped court hearing and a subsequent warrant issued for his arrest, Omaha police requested that the Obama administration detain Mejia, but it refused to do so, allowing Mejia to disappear. He remains at large, and Ms. Root's grieving family and friends have been deprived of justice.

To address this case and other such tragedies that have befallen the Midlands and the rest of the country, we introduced Sarah's Law, which amends the Immigration and Nationality Act to require the detention of illegal aliens who have been charged in the United States with a crime that resulted in the death or serious bodily injury of another person. In your hearing, you described our legislation as "a very commonsensical bill and something that [you] would certainly be inclined to support." We find your statement greatly encouraging. We write to you today to spell out steps we urge you take in regards to this critical issue:

-If confirmed, please prioritize review of this legislation by the appropriate components of the Department to be completed within the first 60 days of your time in office;

-Should the Department under your leadership determine that it can support this legislation, please commit to working with us to enact it into law; and

-Please commit to conduct a review within 180 days of Department policies to determine steps that the Department has taken and could take in the future to effectuate the goals of Sarah's Law and Executive Order 13768.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact our staff at (202) 224-4224, (202) 224-3254, and (202) 224-3744.

Sincerely,

Ben Sasse

Joni Ernst

Chuck Grassley

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