Mollie Tibbetts went missing a month ago after going for a run, and was found on Tuesday morning. She a 20-year-old student at the University of Iowa, from a small town in rural Iowa. She was found buried under cornstalks outside her town, and authorities say the man was in the country illegally, though his lawyer has disputed that claim.
Many, including President Trump, have been quick to call this an immigration issue. Trump posted a video on twitter, saying, “Mollie Tibbetts, an incredible young woman, is now permanently separated from her family, a person came in from Mexico illegally and killed her. We need the wall, we need our immigration laws changed, we need our border laws changed, we need Republicans to do it because the Democrats aren’t going to do it,” he said.
Community members and members of Mollie Tibbetts’ family have come forward saying they “don’t want Mollie’s memory to get lost amongst politics.” Her cousin, Samantha Lucas, tweeted a response to Candace Owens, who was using Mollie’s story to promote immigration laws.
“Hey, I’m a member of Mollie’s family and we are not so f–king small-minded that we generalize a whole population based on some bad individuals,” Lucas said on Twitter. “Now stop being a f–king snake and using my cousins death as political propaganda. Take her name out of your mouth.”
Others in the community emphasize the need for a focus on the victim, saying that the media should be focused on recurring violence toward women and girls as the culprit for this tragedy, as well as the man himself, regardless of his immigration status.
