On Jan. 20, President Biden revoked his predecessor‘s broad 2017 executive order on immigration polices. Among its provisions was one requiring federal immigration authorities to detain anyone living illegally in the country who is charged with “killing or seriously injuring another person.”
The provision was modeled on “Sarah's Law,” a bill introduced in 2016 by Iowa and Nebraska Senators after a young Iowa woman, Sarah Roots, was killed earlier in the year by a drunk driver. The driver was living in the U.S. without legal authorization, but disappeared after posting bail. Immigration authorities had declined to take him into custody.
A version of the law passed the then Republican-controlled House in 2017, but was never passed by the Senate.