An Arkansas mother has spent years reliving her daughter's gruesome death in courtrooms, fighting to keep the illegal alien who killed her behind bars — while a parade of elected officials rushes to defend the rights of detainees in ICE custody.
Kathy Hall's 18-year-old daughter, Hailey King, was riding a scooter home for dinner in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Nov. 7, 2016, when Sergio Rodriguez — an illegal alien driving 36 mph over the speed limit — slammed into her from behind. King was thrown onto the hood, then headfirst onto the street. She suffered a brain stem hemorrhage, cranial hemorrhages, a burst spleen, and a lacerated liver. She died shortly after, leaving behind a 2-year-old daughter named Brooklyn.
King's friend, Osmin "David" Gutierrez, was trapped underneath Rodriguez's truck for over a mile. When sparks started flying, Rodriguez pulled into an apartment complex — and Gutierrez's legs detached. He was left screaming in the driveway. He died two years later from a blood clot resulting from his amputations.
Rodriguez disappeared for three days after the incident. When apprehended, he was released on bond in less than an hour. Despite his immigration status, authorities chose not to notify ICE. Hall told Fox News she was informed that had ICE been notified, Rodriguez would have simply been picked up and sent back to his home country — and the implication was that this was somehow to be avoided.
Rodriguez was eventually sentenced to 17 years for manslaughter, battery, and leaving the scene of a crime. After just one and a half years, Hall was notified he was eligible for parole — forcing her to return to court repeatedly to testify against his release. Hall said Rodriguez was "protected every step of the way" during the trial, while her family was "treated like we were the criminals."
Contrast that with the political response when an illegal alien dies in custody. The Washington Examiner reported that after the death of Edwin López Cornejo — who, according to Markwayne Mullin, the official overseeing ICE, "died at the hospital, not in our custody" — New Jersey's governor, both its U.S. senators, Reps. Rosa DeLauro and Delia Ramirez, and the Hispanic Federation all demanded the Delaney Hall facility be shut down. Over 100 protesters demonstrated at the site. Ramirez called the death "inexcusable" and accused ICE of refusing to provide required medical care.
Mullin pushed back, noting ICE facilities exceed federal standards and have a death rate far lower than state prisons. But the political momentum tells the story: an illegal alien's death draws senators and governors and organized protests. An American citizen's death draws a mother sitting alone in court, fighting a system that released her daughter's killer on bond within an hour and made a deliberate decision not to notify immigration authorities.
Hall sat with her dying daughter in that hospital room, told her she loved her, and promised she would never stop fighting for justice. The question is whether any system in Washington was built to help her keep that promise.
