Donald Trump

Mollie Tibbetts' Father Asks People to Stop Using Her Death in Immigration Debate

"Do not appropriate Mollie’s soul in advancing views she believed were profoundly racist," Rob Tibbetts wrote

The father of Mollie Tibbetts, the Iowa woman allegedly killed by a Mexican man living in the United States illegally, implored people Saturday to stop using her murder to advance their political agenda, a day after President Donald Trump's son criticized some Democrats and what he called an "open-borders agenda," NBC News reported.

"At the outset, politicians and pundits used Mollie’s death to promote various political agendas. We appealed to them and they graciously stopped. For that, we are grateful," Tibbetts' father, Rob Tibbetts, wrote in an op-ed in the Des Moines Register published Saturday.

"Sadly, others have ignored our request. They have instead chosen to callously distort and corrupt Mollie’s tragic death to advance a cause she vehemently opposed. I encourage the debate on immigration; there is great merit in its reasonable outcome," Rob Tibbetts wrote.

"But do not appropriate Mollie’s soul in advancing views she believed were profoundly racist. The act grievously extends the crime that stole Mollie from our family and is, to quote Donald Trump Jr., 'heartless' and 'despicable,'" Mollie’s father wrote.

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