Cristhian Bathena Rivera, a Mexican citizen who is in the country without proper documentation, has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts of Brooklyn, Iowa. Mollie went missing after going out for a jog about one month ago.
According to Fox News, Rivera is believed to have been living in rural Poweshiek County for four to seven years.
The loss of Mollie Tibbets is a tragedy, and I extend my condolences to her family.
The right wing is already trying to use Mollie’s murder to advance their own twisted agenda. Breitbart, Fox News, and the like are filled with comments demonizing Mexicans and lamenting that, if only The Wall had been built, Mollie would still be alive.
Here’s how I think we should respond to these efforts to use Mollie’s murder for political purposes: turn it right back around. In the words of Michael Avenatti, “So I say when they go low, we hit harder.”
This is the fault of Trump and Sessions. This is the bad hombre they promised to deport. Did they deport him? No. Instead, they’ve spent the past 18 months locking up children at the border, arresting pizza-delivery guys, arresting young girls undergoing surgery, arresting the wives of veterans, arresting mothers and fathers who have lived peaceably in this country for decades, and all the rest, and breaching their prior agreements with in-service military immigrants.
This accused murderer is the guy they promised to go after, but he was too tough for them: instead, they’ve gone after women and children.
(The above is largely the language of a friend who shall remain nameless unless he wants to post a comment below.)
Update: The dairy farm owned by Dane Lang and his father, Craig Lang, the latter a prominent Iowa Republican, confirms that it has employed Cristhian Bathena Rivera for the last four years.
Craig Lang has previously served as President of the Iowa Farm Bureau and as President of the Iowa Board of Regents, which governs the state's public universities. This past June, he lost a close GOP primary for state Agriculture Secretary.