Rob Tibbetts (file photo)
The father of Mollie Tibbetts is asking politicians to “show some decency” and leave his late daughter’s name out of their debate over immigration.
On the same day authorities announced Mollie Tibbetts’ body had been found, investigators said the man accused of murdering her was an undocumented farmhand who had been living illegally in Iowa for several years. That evening, President Trump cited the Tibbetts case and called the nation’s immigration laws a disgrace.
This weekend Rob Tibbetts was an opinion piece published in The Des Moines Register. He asked politicians not to “appropriate Mollie’s soul in advancing views she believed were profoundly racist.” Mr. Tibbetts also said the accused murderer “is no more a reflection of the Hispanic community as white supremacists are of all white people.”
Tibbetts wrote in The Register that there is “great merit” in a reasonable debate and resolution to the nation’s on-going immigration debate, but he said it was “shameful” that some politicians have chosen to “corrupt Mollie’s tragic death to advance a cause she vehemently opposed.”