Homeland Security Chief meets with family of Sarah Root during Omaha visit

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Federal and state officials were in Omaha on Monday to discuss Nebraska’s to discuss changes to how the federal government responds to natural disasters — and to meet with the family of Sarah Root.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and U.S. Sen. Pete Ricketts sat down with FEMA Administrator Cameron Hamilton and local emergency crews for a roundtable. Nebraska has received more than $120 million in FEMA support since 2016.

Afterwards, Mullin and Ricketts met privately with the family of Root, a 21-year-old Bellevue University graduate killed in 2016 by an undocumented driver in Omaha — Eswin Mejia — who was driving drunk. Root’s family also met with investigators from Homeland Security Investigations who worked the case.

Wildfires & storm damage

Wildfires burned across western Nebraska from March to April. The Cottonwood and Morrill fires were among the larger blazes and contributed to burning 800,000 acres of land in Nebraska. A woman from Oshkosh, spoke with First Alert 6 in March, and described seeing her neighbors’ homes and farmland reduced to ashes.

In May, severe storms with intense winds moved through Auburn, Neb., downing trees and damaging homes. Residents in the area reported trees on their homes and cars along with a large amount of debris to clear.

FEMA sent disaster assistance funding to Nebraska in response to both situations.

FEMA funding changes

Mullin said FEMA will give more responsibility to states during disaster relief funding. Mullin said he believes the change will get funding to communities that need it more quickly.

“FEMA was never designed to be the first responder. It was there to be, to be there on your worst day to help the state, to help the local government recover, not take over and take charge of the situation,” Mullin said. “If we can get that dollar to the local governments, allow them to spend and allow them to contract, it’ll go farther and be more efficient.”

The Trump administration ordered FEMA to cut its staff by half. A federal judge ruled the order was illegal, citing a 2007 law. The law says the DHS secretary may not substantially reduce authorities, responsibilities and functions.

Sarah’s Law

Sarah Root, 21, died in 2016, the same day she graduated college. In February, a judge sentenced Honduran national Eswin Mejia to 20 years in prison for his role in Root’s death. After the 2016 crash, Mejia bonded out of jail and went on the run for nearly a decade before investigators tracked him down in Honduras and brought him back to Douglas County for trial.

Root’s death led to the passing of “Sarah’s Law,” which requires law enforcement to detain illegal immigrants accused of violent crimes against Americans.

Mullin joined Root’s family Monday along with Sen. Pete Ricketts. It has been 10 years since Michelle Root’s daughter, Sarah, was killed in the drunk driving crash. Sarah’s Law was passed last year.

“It is so amazing. It’s been that long, and it’s still in the forefront,” Michelle Root said.

Root’s family says a law passed in her name is an indescribable feeling.

“It was such a weight lifted off our shoulders and it’s hard to describe the release, just like it’s hard to describe to anyone the death of a child unless they’ve experienced it,” Michelle Root said.

How the law is applied

Eric Cardiel, special agent of Iowa Homeland Security Investigations, said mandatory detention applies broadly under the law.

“I mean, every case we have where we have mandatory detention of an alien is going to have this right?” Cardiel said.

Cardiel said there are countless cases this could have applied to in the last year.

“If aliens are now coming in contact with law enforcement, they’re getting arrested, they’re going to get charges, they’re getting detained. So those are incidents that we don’t have to respond to in the future. They’re not going to go out and kill somebody because we’re going to deal with them then. They’ll be in custody,” Cardiel said.

Asked about future legislation similar to Sarah’s Law or work left to be done, Michelle Root responded.

“Honestly, most of it has changed since - like we were talking about Sarah’s Law and Laken Riley’s Act… Of course there are still going to be issues for the ones that haven’t been, um, captured yet, and trying to get those, but they’re working hard,” Root said.

Watch Monday’s news conference

—

Digital Producer Elaina Riley contributed to this report.

—

Watch breaking news unfold on our livestream. Download the First Alert 6 streaming app to your TV or find us in your favorite streaming platform.