GOP calls for stricter immigration laws after student’s killing

UPDATE: The employers of the suspect in an Iowa college student’s death say he presented false identification when he came to work for them. Correcting information given Tuesday, manager Dane Lang said Yarrabee Farms did not use the government’s E-Verify system to check the immigration status of Cristhian Bahena Rivera, who presented an out-of-state ID card and Social Security number when he applied for work four years ago. He was a reliable employee, Lang said, and continued to show up for work after the disappearance of 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts on July 18. Authorities said earlier this week Rivera confessed to kidnapping and killing Tibbetts during her evening run outside Brooklyn, Iowa. He is now jailed on a $5 million bond.

Rivera’s defense attorney, Allan Richards, acknowledged Wednesday that his client received his paycheck under a different name and that he was uncertain of his immigration status. He said he was prepared to argue that his client was in the country legally, noting that he came to the United States as a minor and had worked and paid taxes for years.

Yarrabee Farms is a small family farming operation that Lang’s family has owned for six generations. Lang said his farm received dozens of disturbing phone calls and messages since Rivera’s arrest, including threats to kill his dog and burn down his buildings.

UPDATE (8/22/18, 4:29 p.m.): An attorney for the man suspected in the death of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts said in court filings Wednesday that his client may have legal immigration status in the United States. Allan Richards said Cristhian Bahena Rivera, who is being held on a $5 million bond, passed an E-verify immigration status check performed by an area farm where he worked for the past four years. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it lodged a federal immigration detainer for Rivera after he was arrested on the murder charge, meaning the agency has probable cause to believe he is subject to deportation. Richards also asked for a gag order and closed court proceedings, saying attention brought to the case by President Donald Trump could “poison the entire possible pool of jury members.” According to Rivera’s Facebook page, he originally is from Guayabillo, a community of less than 500 people in the Mexican state of Guerrero.

OUR EARLIER REPORT (8/22/18, 12:24 p.m.): News that an illegal immigrant confessed to kidnapping and murdering a college student in Iowa led to renewed calls from politicians for immigration reform Tuesday. Cristhian Bahena Rivera, 24, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in the death of 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts, who disappeared July 18 while on an evening run in a rural area near Brooklyn, Iowa.

President Donald Trump referenced the killing and arrest Tuesday night at a rally in Charleston, W.Va. “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. “The immigration laws are such a disgrace, we’re getting them changed, but we have to get more Republicans.” Iowa’s Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds blasted a system that “allowed a predator like this to live in our community,” and the state’s GOP U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley called the death a tragedy that “could have been prevented.”