Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Tibbetts Slaying Focuses Attention on Immigrants in Farming
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 7 years ago on
August 24, 2018

Share

DES MOINES, Iowa — The arrest of a Mexican farmworker in the death of Iowa college student Mollie Tibbetts renewed calls to change immigration laws, but it also focused attention on the immigrant workers whose labor is essential to the state’s agricultural industry.
Hours after authorities found the body of Tibbetts and charged the suspect with murder, politicians including President Donald Trump, the Iowa governor and two senators expressed outrage that Cristhian Bahena Rivera had been able to live illegally in the U.S. for years. They urged a wider crackdown on illegal immigration.
The response from farming groups was more muted, reflecting the difficulty in hiring people for the physically demanding work at dairies, slaughterhouses and other agricultural operations.
The day after Rivera’s arrest, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley acknowledged that some of the most intense opposition has come from his own state’s agriculture industry because of its need for workers.
“We’re the No. 1 egg-producing state, and I can’t talk to the egg producers without this being a problem,” said Grassley, a Republican. “With big dairy farms — and they’re getting bigger all the time in Iowa — but even in smaller dairy farms, you hear it. You hear it in the industrial hog production that we have, and then you also hear it from the processing of our agricultural products.”

47 Percent Lack Proper Authorization

Fellow Republican Sen. Joni Ernst noted, “A lot of our agricultural industry does rely on many laborers, and we just don’t have enough of that labor pool in the state of Iowa.”

“A lot of our agricultural industry does rely on many laborers, and we just don’t have enough of that labor pool in the state of Iowa.” — Republican Sen. Joni Ernst
According to the Labor Department’s most recent National Agriculture Workers Survey, about 47 percent of hired crop farmworkers in the U.S. lack proper authorization to work here. The most recent data available was released in December 2016 based on surveys from 2013 to 2014. The survey showed that 68 percent of hired farmworkers were born in Mexico.
A spokeswoman for the Iowa Farm Bureau declined to comment, but the American Farm Bureau Federation said that it would support a mandatory electronic employee verification system only if the federal government also created an agriculture worker program, protected employers who may have inadvertently hired workers not in the country legally and allowed workers already hired to remain on the job under a new program.
In response to Trump’s criticism of existing immigration laws, Craig Lang, a former farm bureau president whose dairy employed Rivera, said laws need to be changed to identify and track immigrant workers while also providing essential labor.
“That is the kind of immigration we need not only for agriculture but for many other industries,” said Lang, who was a Republican candidate for Iowa agriculture secretary but lost in the primary.

Providing False Documents

Lang’s family said Wednesday that Rivera had provided false documents with a different identity when he was hired four years ago and that he had been a good employee.
The Iowa State Dairy Association took a similar stand, calling for a more effective way to verify that potential workers can legally be hired.

“In today’s tight economy, labor is scarce, and finding employees for open positions can be difficult.” — The Iowa State Dairy Association
“In today’s tight economy, labor is scarce, and finding employees for open positions can be difficult,” the association said in a statement. “Legal immigrants fill a wide variety of jobs and often provide relief needed for employers.”
State Sen. David Johnson, who worked on an Iowa dairy farm for 20 years, said Iowa’s dairy and meatpacking industries could not survive without immigrant labor. He said improvements must be made in worker vetting to ensure that documents and identities are not faked or stolen.
“It’s got to be a comprehensive approach that takes as much of these things in as possible,” he said. “Set something up so everybody understands what the rules are because we have to maintain ourselves as a nation of laws.”
He said he’s known many hardworking Hispanic employees at dairies seeking only a better life for their families.

More Focused on the Loss

In Brooklyn, Iowa, where Tibbetts was last seen, residents seemed more focused on the loss of a beloved young woman who had grown up in the town of 1,500 than the citizenship of the man arrested in her death.

Mollie Tibbets missing Iowa student search poster
Mollie Tibbetts, whose July 18 disappearance set off a massive search involving state and federal authorities, was found dead Aug. 21, 2018. (AP File Photo)
 
Brad Hohensee, school superintendent in the Brooklyn area, said the district’s message to students is that the alleged kidnapping and murder of Tibbetts has nothing to do with “race or color.”
“We just have to decide how we’re going to handle it all. Not as a community. The country has to decide. How do we handle this stuff? It can’t keep going on.” — Rusty Clayton, City Council member
“We are staying positive here and focusing on Mollie,” Hohensee said. “Let’s focus on what Mollie did for our school and community. She was very positive and we are staying positive.”
Tibbetts’ aunt took a similar approach, writing on her Facebook page: “Evil comes in EVERY color. Our family has been blessed to be surrounded by love, friendship and support throughout this entire ordeal by friends from all different nations and races.”
Rusty Clayton, a City Council member and owner of the True Value hardware store in Brooklyn, Iowa, said Tibbetts’ death “just put a big hole in everybody’s heart.”
Clayton hopes his town’s tragedy will lead to changes that could enable employers to hire immigrant workers while also ensuring public safety.
“We’ve got trouble in the system somewhere,” Clayton said. “We just have to decide how we’re going to handle it all. Not as a community. The country has to decide. How do we handle this stuff? It can’t keep going on.”

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Tulare County Man Arrested After Firing at Deputies During Eviction Attempt

DON'T MISS

If ex-Bitwise CEOs Behave in Prison, How Much Less Time Will They Serve?

DON'T MISS

Trump Just Bet the Farm

DON'T MISS

Staged Crashes and Insurance Fraud: Is Your California Commute a Target?

DON'T MISS

Fight Over Phonics: Will CA Require the ‘Science of Reading’ in K-12 Schools?

DON'T MISS

Russia Says Trump’s Threats Against Iran Could Trigger ‘Global Catastrophe’

DON'T MISS

Get Off the Phone! Fresno Police Target Distracted Driving

DON'T MISS

Federal Reserve Chief Says Trump Tariffs Likely to Raise Inflation and Slow US Economic Growth

DON'T MISS

The NBA’s Playoff Chase Enters Its Final Days. Here’s a Look at What’s Happening

DON'T MISS

USC’s JuJu Watkins Named AP Player of the Year After Historic Sophomore Season

UP NEXT

USC’s JuJu Watkins Named AP Player of the Year After Historic Sophomore Season

UP NEXT

Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman Lands on Injured List Following Fall in His Shower at Home

UP NEXT

Curry Scores 37 Points and Warriors Beat Lakers in a Potential First-Round Playoff Preview

UP NEXT

Measles Spreads to Central Texas; 5 States Have Active Outbreaks

UP NEXT

Startup Offers Controversial Microplastic Blood Cleansing Treatment

UP NEXT

Pence Will Receive the Profile in Courage Award From the JFK Library for His Actions on Jan. 6

UP NEXT

Flores Homers, Matos and Wade Also Go Deep to Help Giants Cap Sweep of Astros

UP NEXT

Trump Proposes Tax Deduction for Auto Loan Interest on US-Made Cars

UP NEXT

Western US Sees Sharp Increase in Extreme Weather Impact

UP NEXT

7-Year-Old Girl Was Killed by a Falling Boulder at a Lake Tahoe Ski Resort

Staged Crashes and Insurance Fraud: Is Your California Commute a Target?

1 hour ago

Fight Over Phonics: Will CA Require the ‘Science of Reading’ in K-12 Schools?

1 hour ago

Russia Says Trump’s Threats Against Iran Could Trigger ‘Global Catastrophe’

2 hours ago

Get Off the Phone! Fresno Police Target Distracted Driving

2 hours ago

Federal Reserve Chief Says Trump Tariffs Likely to Raise Inflation and Slow US Economic Growth

2 hours ago

The NBA’s Playoff Chase Enters Its Final Days. Here’s a Look at What’s Happening

2 hours ago

USC’s JuJu Watkins Named AP Player of the Year After Historic Sophomore Season

2 hours ago

Dodgers’ Freddie Freeman Lands on Injured List Following Fall in His Shower at Home

2 hours ago

How Trump’s Latest Tariffs Could Affect Your Wallet

2 hours ago

Curry Scores 37 Points and Warriors Beat Lakers in a Potential First-Round Playoff Preview

2 hours ago

Tulare County Man Arrested After Firing at Deputies During Eviction Attempt

A Porterville man accused of opening fire on Tulare County Sheriff’s deputies during an attempted eviction was arrested late Thursday, autho...

32 minutes ago

Kenneth Bratton, 43, was arrested after allegedly firing at Tulare County Sheriff’s deputies during an eviction attempt in Porterville. (Tulare County SO)
32 minutes ago

Tulare County Man Arrested After Firing at Deputies During Eviction Attempt

42 minutes ago

If ex-Bitwise CEOs Behave in Prison, How Much Less Time Will They Serve?

1 hour ago

Trump Just Bet the Farm

1 hour ago

Staged Crashes and Insurance Fraud: Is Your California Commute a Target?

1 hour ago

Fight Over Phonics: Will CA Require the ‘Science of Reading’ in K-12 Schools?

2 hours ago

Russia Says Trump’s Threats Against Iran Could Trigger ‘Global Catastrophe’

The Fresno Police Department will conduct an enforcement operation on April 7, 2025, to target drivers violating the hands-free cell phone law, aiming to reduce distracted driving. (Shutterstock)
2 hours ago

Get Off the Phone! Fresno Police Target Distracted Driving

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference after the Federal Open Market Committee meeting, Wednesday, March 19, 2025, at the Federal Reserve in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
2 hours ago

Federal Reserve Chief Says Trump Tariffs Likely to Raise Inflation and Slow US Economic Growth

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend