XPost: alt.agriculture.fruit, byu.news, chi.general   
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   From: criminally-complicit@sfchronicle.com   
      
   The Mexican immigrant accused of murdering University of Iowa   
   student Mollie Tibbetts used another person's name and   
   identification to get a job on a family farm owned by a   
   prominent Iowa Republican, the owners of the business said   
   Wednesday.   
      
   The revelation came after murder suspect Cristhian Bahena Rivera   
   made his first court appearance and was ordered held on $5   
   million cash bond.   
      
   Molly Tibbetts murder suspect makes first court appearance   
   AUG.22.201802:47   
      
   "What we learned in the last 24 hours was that our employee was   
   not who he said he was," Dane Lang told reporters gathered at   
   Yarrabee Farms in Brooklyn, Iowa.   
      
   Lang co-owns the farm with his father, Craig Lang, who is a   
   former GOP candidate for the state’s agriculture secretary. He   
   said he knows Rivera by a different name — which he declined to   
   divulge.   
      
   "It was not Cristhian," Lang said.   
      
   Lang said that when Rivera applied for a job four years ago at   
   the farm, he produced an Iowa state ID and a Social Security   
   card that they checked out by calling the Social Security   
   administration — not the government-run E-Verify system as they   
   had said in an earlier statement.   
      
   After it was revealed that they had employed an undocumented   
   worker, Lang said they received more than 100 hostile messages,   
   including death threats and "threats to kill my dog."   
      
   Rivera, 24, did not enter a plea during his brief appearance in   
   the Poweshiek County courthouse one day after he was charged   
   with first-degree murder in connection with the death of the 20-   
   year-old Tibbetts.   
      
   Wearing what appeared to be a bulletproof vest underneath his   
   black- and white-striped prison outfit, as well as headphones to   
   hear a Spanish-language interpreter, Rivera nodded his head and   
   answered "Si" when asked if he understood the purpose of the   
   hearing.   
      
   The judge then denied a motion by Rivera's defense attorney,   
   Allan Richards, for a gag order — and to bar the media from   
   proceedings. In a court document, Richards said comments about   
   the case by President Donald Trump would "poison the entire   
   possible pool of jury members."   
      
   Mollie Tibbetts suspect not previously known to local police,   
   says Iowa special agent   
   AUG.22.201802:17   
      
   "The government has weighed in at the highest levels with a   
   predisposition that my client is guilty," he said.   
      
   Rivera, who did not enter a plea, faces life in prison without   
   parole if convicted of killing Tibbetts. Her body was found   
   Tuesday in a field on a farm east of her Brooklyn, Iowa,   
   hometown.   
      
   Richards told the court that Rivera was a minor when he moved to   
   Iowa from Mexico.   
      
   In a court filing from Richards seeking a gag order in the case,   
   Richards said that the government has been promoting the idea   
   that Rivera is in the country illegally — Trump mentioned the   
   case at Tuesday’s rally in West Virginia — and that "the   
   Government's position of promotion of this idea will prevent any   
   notion of Cristhian's right to a fair trial."   
      
   "Sad and Sorry Trump has weighed in on this matter in national   
   media which will poison the entire possible pool of jury   
   members," Richards wrote in the court document. The document   
   appears to rely on an earlier statement from Craig Lang that the   
   farm had verified Rivera was in the Iowa legally — but that was   
   made before the Wednesday afternoon news conference.   
      
   In the earlier statement, the Lang brothers had said Rivera was   
   an "employee in good standing."   
      
   "This individual has worked at our farms for four years, was   
   vetted through the government’s E-Verify system," it said. "On   
   Monday, the authorities visited our farm and talked to our   
   employees. We have cooperated fully with their investigation."   
      
   Investigators used surveillance video to track down Rivera, who   
   was seen following Tibbetts in his car as she jogged on a rural   
   road.   
      
   "I can’t speak about the motive. I can just tell you that it   
   seemed that he followed her, seemed to be drawn to her on that   
   particular day, for whatever reason he chose to abduct her," DCI   
   Special Agent Rick Rahn told reporters at a news conference on   
   Tuesday.   
      
   "He told us he had seen Mollie in the past and on that   
   particular day, July 18, 2018, he happened to see her, he was   
   drawn to her, and as a result, kind of followed her around a   
   little bit and ultimately confronted her," Rahn said. "And ended   
   up tackling her and ultimately abducting her."   
      
   The case has sparked renewed calls for reforming an immigration   
   vetting system that critics say does little to prevent   
   undocumented workers from illegally getting jobs in the U.S.   
      
   E-Verify is run by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration   
   Services, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.   
   It's described on the site as a voluntary "web-based system that   
   allows enrolled employers to confirm the eligibility of their   
   employees to work in the United States" by matching information   
   provided by workers on the I-9 form against Social Security and   
   Department of Homeland Security records.   
      
   But critics like Alex Nowrasteh of the libertarian-leaning Cato   
   Institute dismissed the E-Verify system as a "total joke" that   
   enables undocumented immigrants to get jobs in the United States   
   — and enables employers to keep from knowingly hiring them.   
      
   E-Verify accepts Social Security cards, passports and other   
   documentation as proof of identity — but it relies on employers   
   to determine whether the documents submitted by potential   
   employees are legit and not borrowed or stolen, he said.   
      
   "E-Verify has been sold as this silver bullet solution to our   
   immigration problems, but none of its supporters have dealt with   
   the systematic inability to weed out illegal immigrants,"   
   Nowrasteh said in an interview with NBC News. "Cracking down on   
   illegal immigration is very expensive and can hurt the economy,   
   but politicians have to say they’re doing something about it. E-   
   Verify is a way for politicians to have their cake and eat it,   
   too."   
      
   Some states like Iowa have strengthened their E-Verify   
   procedures by enrolling in the RIDE program, which enables an   
   employer to verify the identity of an applicant who presents an   
   Iowa driver’s license or ID card.   
      
   But Rivera had neither, said Andrea Henry, a spokeswoman for the   
   Iowa Department of Transportation.   
      
   Rivera's next court appearance is set for Aug. 31.   
      
   https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mollie-tibbetts-murder-   
   suspect-ordered-held-5-million-bond-n902941   
                                      
      
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