President Trump was among the first to turn talk about the tragedy of Mollie Tibbetts’ murder to calls for tighter immigration laws on Tuesday after it was revealed the 20-year-old Iowa student was murdered by an illegal alien.
Mexican national Cristhian Rivera, 24, has been living in Iowa and working illegally for anywhere between four and seven years.
On July 18, he attacked Mollie in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa, while she was out jogging, killed her and then dumped her body in a cornfield.
He was arrested on Monday after recently recovered surveillance footage led police to his Chevy Malibu.
At a rally in West Virginia on Tuesday night, Trump said the ‘incredible, beautiful’ young woman’s death should never have happened.
‘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.
‘Should have never happened. Illegally in our country. We’ve had a huge impact but the laws are so bad.
‘The immigration laws are such a disgrace. We’re getting them changed but we have to get more Republicans. We have to get,’ Trump said to cheers of ‘build the wall’.
Iowa’s Governor Kim Reynolds said she and the rest of the state were ‘heartbroken’ by the discovery of Mollie’s body.
She blamed the young woman’s death on the country’s ‘broken’ immigration system, tweeting: ‘As Iowans, we are heartbroken and we are angry.
We are angry that a broken immigration system allowed a predator to live in our community and we will do all we can to bring justice to Mollie’s killer.
‘Over the past month, thousands of Iowans searched and prayed for Mollie’s safe return.
‘Now, we are called to come together to lift up a grieving family. The search for Mollie is over, but the demand for justice has just begun.’
