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   From: criminally-complicit@sfchronicle.com   
      
   Minnesota state Sen. Karin Housley on Wednesday seized on the   
   killing of a young Iowa college student — and the reported   
   confession of an immigrant with disputed legal status — to take   
   the fight on the immigration issue to her Democratic opponent,   
   U.S. Sen. Tina Smith.   
      
   Housley, a Republican from the Stillwater area, released a   
   statement calling the murder a “preventable tragedy.” She   
   charged that Smith and “liberal Democrats … are more concerned   
   about protecting criminal aliens than protecting innocent lives   
   like Mollie Tibbetts.”   
      
   Smith did not directly address Housley’s attack: “This is an   
   awful tragedy and my heart breaks for Mollie’s family. I can   
   imagine nothing worse than losing a child. The individual   
   responsible for this heinous crime must be brought to justice   
   and punished,” Smith said in a statement to the Star Tribune.   
      
   Cristhian Bahena Rivera was charged with Tibbetts’ murder   
   Tuesday, and authorities said he was in the country illegally.   
   But on Wednesday his lawyer filed a motion stating his client is   
   living and working in Iowa legally.   
      
   On Wednesday, a member of Tibbetts’ extended family, Sam Lucas,   
   a recent graduate of the University of Missouri, tweeted angrily   
   that the death should not be used as “political propaganda.” In   
   addition, Tibbetts’ aunt, Billie Jo Calderwood, urged people in   
   a Facebook post to remember that “evil comes in all colors.”   
      
   Republicans — and especially President Donald Trump — have   
   sought to shine a light on millions of people here in violation   
   of American immigration law, and who Republicans say pose a   
   threat to the nation’s safety.   
      
   Democrats, outraged by the Trump administration’s policy of   
   separating families seeking asylum and other aggressive   
   deportation tactics, have grown increasingly defiant, including   
   calls from some — though not Smith — to abolish the Immigration   
   and Customs Enforcement arm of the federal government.   
      
   In her statement, Smith detailed her own views on immigration:   
   “Since coming to the Senate, I have voted to increase funding   
   for border security by more than $25 billion. I also believe we   
   need better intelligence and more effective technology at the   
   border. And we need to make sure reform includes a tough but   
   fair path to citizenship for people who are in this country   
   working, paying taxes and contributing to our society.”   
      
   Housley and Trump, who favor a border wall and want to force   
   cities and states to aggressively enforce immigration laws, say   
   violent crime is a natural outgrowth of an uncontrolled border.   
      
   According to a 2015 National Academy of Sciences report,   
   however, “Immigrants are in fact much less likely to commit   
   crime than natives, and the presence of large numbers of   
   immigrants seems to lower crime rates.”   
      
   Jessica Vaughan, the policy director of the Center for   
   Immigration Studies, which favors tighter immigration controls,   
   said the data are inconclusive. “Anyone who says they know the   
   answer to that question is misleading you” because the vast   
   majority of jurisdictions don’t track the immigration status of   
   criminals and the census data on the immigration status of the   
   incarcerated is a flawed measure of crime rates, Vaughan said.   
      
   Vaughan said the relevant policy questions are about deterring   
   people from coming, the swift removal of those who commit crimes   
   and a crackdown on those who hire them.   
      
   Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy analyst with the Cato   
   Institute, said it is clear that undocumented immigrants commit   
   fewer crimes, citing a preponderance of peer-reviewed studies,   
   including a Cato study of Texas, the rare jurisdiction that   
   tracks the immigration status of criminals.   
      
   The problem with an emphasis on crime committed by immigrants   
   not in the country legally, Nowrasteh said, is that “they’re   
   focusing government resources on a population less likely to   
   commit murders. That’s a waste of resources that could have been   
   used to prevent murder in populations that are more likely to   
   commit them.”   
      
   Trump, who made immigration a centerpiece of his presidential   
   campaign, is hammering Democrats on the issue in the run-up to   
   the election that could decide which party controls Congress.   
      
   At a campaign rally in West Virginia Tuesday, Trump blamed   
   faulty immigration law for Tibbetts’ murder: “You heard about   
   today with the illegal immigrant coming in, very sadly, from   
   Mexico and you saw what happened to that incredible, beautiful   
      
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