On the evening of July 18th, 2018 Mollie Tibbetts went out for her regular evening run in her neighborhood of Brooklyn, Iowa. Everything seemed as normal as it should be—locals saw her in dark running shorts and a pink top. This would be the last time anyone saw her alive.
Mollie Tibbetts, a twenty year old University of Iowa student vanished one night in June on her usual run while dog-sitting in her neighborhood. She was reported missing the next day, July 19th, when family, friends, and coworkers could not get ahold of her. From that moment on a massive search was set in place to find her. Officials say more than 200 people came out to search for Tibbetts. Checking throughout Brooklyn, Iowa in lakes, rivers, fields, even a pig farm fifteen minutes away by car, nothing was found.
One month later, in August, a body was found in a cornfield. Suspect in custody was Cristhian Rivera, who had later confessed to the murder and lead police to the body, according to officials.
Cristhian Rivera is an undocumented immigrant who lives in the rural area where Mollie was suspected to have disappeared just a month earlier. As soon as news got out that Rivera was undocumented, the story has drastically changed from the story of “kind, sweet, caring,” girl, to the issue of immigration. Big name politicians using this as a platform for their immigration law agenda.
Ignoring requests from family members that Mollie’s death not be used for political agendas for either side, tweets, newspapers, and now robocalls from white supremacy groups sprang up across Iowa. Big name politicians, including Donald Trump, Jr., have been using this horrible event to criticize the Democrats by stating that Democrats have not been reacting to this murder the way they should be, stating that “it as despicable as it is revealing,”
Mollie Tibbetts family is just urging for people to respect them and let them mourn the way they need to for losing her. The did not want to have her story out there and dramatized the way it has been. The story is that of a young girl at the wrong place at the wrong time, not of an allegedly undocumented male.
Government officials are taking Tibbetts’ story and using it to put fear into people. What happened to Mollie is a terrible thing, and should be looked at as what it was, not as an immigration case. People are not illegal. Rivera’s actions should be the focus of criticism, not his status of his citizenship.