Authorities: Iowa student killed by Mexican in US illegally - By RYAN FOLEY Associated Press - August 21, 2018 — 9:35pm.
The Latest: Suspect worked at farm tied to Republican farmer - Associated Press - August 21, 2018 — 9:20pm. Stating:
The immigrant from Mexico charged in the kidnapping and murder of an Iowa college student worked at a dairy farm owned by the family of a prominent state Republican leader.
Yarrabee Farms said in a statement that Cristhian Bahena Rivera had worked at its farms for the last four years and was an employee in good standing. The company said it was shocked to hear that Rivera had been charged in the death of 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts.
Spokesman Dane Lang said Tuesday night that Yarrabee Farms is a "small family farm" owned by him and his father, Craig Lang, who has long been a prominent Iowa farmer and political figure.
Craig Lang previously served as president of the Iowa Farm Bureau and president of the Iowa Board of Regents, which governs the state's public universities. In June, he lost a close GOP primary in the race for state agriculture secretary.
As a guess there are more wealthy politically connected Republican farmers hiring illegal labor, over the last four years and knowing the lllegal status exists and gives employer levearage, than Mexican farm laborers committing serious crime.
Far more. Greed among Republicans knows few limits. At a bet Trump declines to seriously rock Yarrabee Farms' boat. Too many to hurt, of fine Republicans, in such a boat. Likely, in fairness, Democrats too. Like Zoe Beard, decades ago. Or have we collectively forgotten "Nannygate" because it came before Twitter?
Yesterday's disqualification from public office consideration has become today's detritis. Why do you suppose that's so?
A rural/urban divide? Something else? There are Republicans owning packing plants and sweat shops too, yes/no?
Should ICE be checking the Wisconsin dairy farm owned by Marcus Bachmann and relatives? Would Michele like ICE to be tasked that way, or is there a Wisconsin boat to not be rocked? Animal Farm equality, all that?
_________________UPDATE________________
Does Karin Housley really want to make rural workforce practices an election issue? Expecting no blowback?
Housley is shamelessly waving the story around, strangely without the part of four years of steady employment of the illegal worker, by one of her Republican politician-farmer colleagues across the Minnesota border, in Iowa. Selective, for whatever motivates her attention, and attention getting effort.
Well, she should query her rural Republican legislative colleagues, and ask about illegal immigrant usages they would not want to see discontinued. Mechanized wheat and corn harvesting are prevalent, but it is either Roundup and GMO seed crops, or field work, for other farming. Dairy farms in particular, if large in scale beyond family capabilities, need labor. Despite posturing, would rural Republicans in Minnesota really want illegal immigrant employer sanctions as would be proper, or do they like the status quo of blind eyes toward what's under their noses - labor needs for jobs so severe in workload imposition that illegals seem to gravitate to them because everyone else does not want to work so hard while earning so little.
Housley must be doing that stuff because she is bankrupt of any actual ideas to run on aside from demonization of others. It is her race to run as she chooses but often telling half a story can be as dishonest as telling an outright lie. If the lady wishes to discuss exploitation of migrant labor in rural areas of the nation, there is data, aggregate crime statistics included.
Investors know that Rule 10b5 recognizes how partial selectively-presented truthfulness can be a fraud. A fraud is a fraud, independent of internal polling or other motives to only tell part of a story, and to demonize a necessary and underpaid part of the rural workforce, for gain. Outside of investor protection law, the principle of half-turths being misleading is intuitively known anyway.
Imagine early explorers being told by native peoples if asked how to get from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario, "Go downriver, the river connects the lakes," without mentioning the falls.
This link, subsection (b). Wikipedia. Again, the latest Strib report, here, late-item, stating in part:
“This is an awful tragedy and my heart breaks for Mollie’s family. I can imagine nothing worse than losing a child. The individual responsible for this heinous crime must be brought to justice and punished,” [Senator] Smith said in a statement to the Star Tribune.
Cristhian Bahena Rivera was charged with Tibbetts’ murder Tuesday, and authorities said he was in the country illegally. But on Wednesday his lawyer filed a motion stating his client is living and working in Iowa legally.
On Wednesday, a member of Tibbetts’ extended family, Sam Lucas, a recent graduate of the University of Missouri, tweeted angrily that the death should not be used as “political propaganda.” In addition, Tibbetts’ aunt, Billie Jo Calderwood, urged people in a Facebook post to remember that “evil comes in all colors.”
Republicans — and especially President Donald Trump — have sought to shine a light on millions of people here in violation of American immigration law, and who Republicans say pose a threat to the nation’s safety.
[italics emphasis added] The Strib report continues:
In her statement, Smith detailed her own views on immigration: “Since coming to the Senate, I have voted to increase funding for border security by more than $25 billion. I also believe we need better intelligence and more effective technology at the border. And we need to make sure reform includes a tough but fair path to citizenship for people who are in this country working, paying taxes and contributing to our society.”
Housley and Trump, who favor a border wall and want to force cities and states to aggressively enforce immigration laws, say violent crime is a natural outgrowth of an uncontrolled border.
According to a 2015 National Academy of Sciences report, however, “Immigrants are in fact much less likely to commit crime than natives, and the presence of large numbers of immigrants seems to lower crime rates.”
Jessica Vaughan, the policy director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors tighter immigration controls, said the data are inconclusive. “Anyone who says they know the answer to that question is misleading you” because the vast majority of jurisdictions don’t track the immigration status of criminals and the census data on the immigration status of the incarcerated is a flawed measure of crime rates, Vaughan said.
Vaughan said the relevant policy questions are about deterring people from coming, the swift removal of those who commit crimes and a crackdown on those who hire them.
[italics added] And again, the makeup of the labor force at the Bachmann dairy farm in Wisconsin might be relevant anecdotal evidence to the question of whether "a crackdown on those who hire them" is a question needing more sunshine instead of telling half truths over it, for votes.
Add to that, fear-mongering never has been good, and lynch mob frenzy helps nothing. Dairy farming is labor intensive, and ripe for ownership wanting the cheapest labor force with the strongest leverage over such labor, both such motivations being aspects of illegals at risk to ICE.
(note that in updating the post the headline was edited for greater clarity)
_______________FURTHER UPDATE________________
That Strib item also notes uncertainty over whether the perp even was an illegal entrant to the nation; vs having legal status. Either way, Housley is inflammatory in her approach and should modify her campaigning to a positive message, if she has one.