MODEL, Iowa (KMTV) - Michelle and Scott Root lost their daughter, Sarah, in 2016 to an undocumented immigrant who was driving drunk and slammed into the back of her car in south Omaha.

When Eswin Mejia posted bond, he left town.

Investigators announced undocumented immigrant Cristhian Bahena Rivera was being charged with first-degree murder for Mollie Tibbetts' death on Tuesday.

"Today, when I found out (Rivera) was illegal, I just broke down in tears again because it brings back so many memories about how preventable this is," Michelle Root said.

After Sarah Root's death, Iowa and Nebraska congressional leaders sponsored Sarah's Law, which would allow the federal government to take custody of anyone in the country illegally who is accused of causing a deadly crime.

But it's not the first time that Iowa has been at the center of the immigration debate. The 2016 death of Council Bluffs' Sarah Root, killed by a drunken driver who was in the country illegally, has long been a talking point on the campaign trail. Like Tibbetts, Root was in her early 20s.

During his campaign for president in 2016, Donald Trump repeatedly referenced Root, calling her "one more child to sacrifice on the altar of open borders.”

In 2017, the U.S. House approved an immigration-related bill that included "Sarah's Law," named after Root, to require federal authorities to crack down on illegal immigrants who commit crimes. Iowa Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst sponsored the measure in the U.S. Senate; Iowa Rep. Steve King introduced it in the House.

"As Governor Reynolds said, ‘our immigration system allowed a predator like this to live in our community.’ Too many Iowans have been lost at the hands of criminals who broke our immigration laws. We cannot allow these tragedies to continue," Grassley and Ernst said in a joint statement Tuesday evening.

Rivera's now-former employer, Yarrabee Farms, on Tuesday said he had passed an employment check. "This individual has worked at our farms for four years, was vetted through the government's E-Verify system, and was an employee in good standing," Yarrabee Farms said in a statement Tuesday.

During an appearance in court on Wednesday, Allan Richards, an attorney for Rivera, seemed to allude to Yarrabee Farms' initial statement to argue that Rivera "has legal status." In a court motion, he told the court that Rivera "has complied with his documented status since arriving in the U.S.A. as a minor."

However, the farm's owners said in a press conference later on Wednesday that the company had determined their ex-employee had used a false name to pass verification. They also explained that while they thought they were using E-Verify, they were actually using a different older system through the Social Security Administration.

"Just within the last four hours we have come to learn that the Social Security Administration employment verification service is not the same as E-Verify," said Dane Lang, co-owner and manager of the farm. "We're signing up for e-verification, and we intend to fully vet everyone through the E-Verify system."