When he’s not busy attacking Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or Bob Mueller, Donald Trump loves to attack undocumented immigrants. He knows that whenever he talks about the immigration “problem” he scores political points with his base of supporters.
He loves to talk about immigration whenever given the opportunity, and the recent murder of an Iowa college student gave him that chance, and he took full advantage of it.
While firing up his partisan crowd in West Virginia last night Trump mentioned 20 year-old Mollie Tibbetts who was murdered three days ago in Iowa. The alleged killer is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico.
“You heard about today with the illegal alien coming in very sadly from Mexico, and you saw what happened to that incredible, beautiful, young woman,” Trump said at his evening rally in West Virginia.
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Bragging about he is cracking down on violent illegal immigrants, Trump said Tibbetts’ death “should’ve never happened.”
“We’ve had a huge impact, but the immigration laws are so bad,” he told the crowd of his supporter. Then he added that “a vote for any Democrat in November is a vote to eliminate immigration enforcement” and allow “violent criminals to be all over our communities.”
Trump’s extreme comments were made just a few hours after Iowa authorities identified Christian Bahena Rivera, 24, as the primary suspect in the murder of Tibbetts, whose body was discovered earlier Tuesday.
Tibbetts murder was also highly touted by Laura Ingraham and others on Fox News as an example of why the U.S. must have an immigration crackdown. Her murder is being used by Republicans to justify building a wall and for sending back more immigrants, even those who are here legally.
“OUTRAGE! Illegal Immigrant Charged With Murder Of Iowa College Student Mollie Tibbetts”
OUTRAGE! Illegal Immigrant Charged With Murder Of Iowa College Student Mollie Tibbetts https://t.co/2sig2L3dQV via @dailycaller
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) August 21, 2018
Sadly, the hypocrisy of the Republican Party has once again gone on display in the Mollie Tibbetts case.
While Republicans are demonizing Democrats over “open borders” it turns out that a REPUBLICAN was the employer of the illegal immigrant who murdered Mollie.
Rivera’s employer — where had worked for four years with no legal problems — was a farming corporation owned by one of Iowa’s most prominent Republicans. The company, Yarrabee Farms, is owned by Craig Lang who was:
- President of the Iowa Farm Bureau,
- Chair of the State Board of Regents, and
- Republican candidate for Secretary of Agriculture.
In Iowa, those are VERY high profile positions. So why doesn’t Fox News talk about the fact that a rich REPUBLICAN employed the illegal immigrant as a farm worker? The reason is that many, many Republican business owners want cheap labor, and they do not want to crack down on immigration in this country.
This means that as Donald Trump and the GOP score political points and win elections by promising to crack down on immigrants, nothing ever happens because most big-money GOP donors want the cheap labor that illegal immigration gives them. This makes their businesses much more profitable.
We know that GOP candidates will keep talking about Mollie Tibbetts as a way to scare voters into supporting their immigration crackdown and voting for Republicans.
It’s a sad thing for the memory of this lovely young lady to be used for such cynical political purposes, however. We know that Republicans will sink to any depth to win elections, even when their campaign positions are filled with lies and hypocrisy. And the Mollie Tibbetts case is just one more example.
I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.
