(Radio Iowa) – The father of the Iowa woman killed nine years ago by a drunk driver who was in the country illegally attended President Trump’s speech to congress last (Tuesday) night. Scott Root first met Trump in the summer of 2016, while Trump was campaigning in Iowa. “He’s been there for my family and always had our back,” Root said. The Honduran charged in 2016 with killing 21-year-old Sarah Root in Omaha disappeared after posting bond. Last month President Trump signed “Sarah’s Law” to deny pre-trial release to illegal immigrants charged with a violent crime and require that they be detained.

“It won’t change anything for my family. My daughter’s as dead as they come, but if happens again and somebody loses their child, at least this keeps them from leaving the country,” Root said. “You have some type of closure, some type of justice.” Root was at the White House to witness Trump signing “Sarah’s Law.” It was part of the Laken Riley Act which requires detention of illegal immigrants charged with burglary and theft. Last week, the Honduran National Police announced they had arrested Eswin Meija, the man charged with killing Root’s daughter.

“You raise a child from a baby to an adult, a child that’s productive — she wasn’t in prison, wasn’t doing drugs. She was well on her way to rock the world and got taken out by somebody who shouldn’t have been here.” Sarah Root, who was from Council Bluffs, was killed a few hours after graduating from college. Scott Root was Senator Joni Ernst’s guest for the president’s speech in the U-S House.