Iowa ‘goodness’ absent from tragedy responses

The outcome of the Mollie Tibbets case was heartbreaking. This is a time when all of us offer our sympathy. It is not a time for politics.

Unfortunately, three Iowa politicians - U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, and Gov. Kim Reynolds (as well as non-Iowan President Donald Trump) - chose to politicize this sad story. That's disgusting.

They felt compelled to bring up illegal immigration as somehow a cause of the tragedy. The fact is, as The Gazette has pointed out, immigrants, both undocumented and documented, commit fewer crimes than native-born citizens. It would have made as much sense for these politicians to have mentioned that the suspect worked on a farm and called for law enforcement to look more closely at people who farm.

Iowans are good people who stand up for decency. Please contact these politicians and let them know that we don't appreciate their using a local tragedy to fan the flames of xenophobia. It is wrong. It is not the way Iowans want their representatives to behave.

Rex Clemmensen

Iowa City