RUTHFULLY YOURS

Not at all helpful was Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) in a Wednesday morning interview with CNN’s John Berman. Here’s a partial transcript:

Mr. Berman: … a very important story in the news: it has to do with Mollie Tibbetts, the young woman in Iowa who was murdered, her body believed to be found yesterday. A person has been charged with it. This person is an undocumented immigrant. Mike Pence and the president have suggested the immigration laws need to be stronger so that people like this man who was accused of this murder were not in the country. Your reaction?

Sen. Warren: I’m so sorry for the family here and I know this is hard not only for the family but for the people in her community, the people throughout Iowa. But one of the things we have to remember is we need an immigration system that is effective, that focuses on where real problems are.

Last month, I went down to the border and I saw where children had been taken away from their mothers. I met with those mothers who had been lied to, who didn’t know where their children were, who hadn’t had a chance to talk to their children, and there was no plan for how they would be reunified with their children.

Ms. Warren was later criticized for seeming to imply that a murder doesn’t qualify as a real problem related to immigration and for changing the subject from the death of a U.S. citizen to the plight of illegal immigrants living with the consequences of apprehension by U.S. law enforcers.

Her Wednesday morning interview is now looking even worse. At the time, the senator was perhaps unacquainted with the details of the Tibbetts case and the suspect. That may be why the senator elaborated on her favored policies at the border:

I think we need immigration laws that focus on people who pose a real threat and I don’t think mamas and babies are the place that we should be spending our resources. Separating a mama from a baby does not make this country safer.

There is a wealth of evidence to make this case as a general matter, including various studies showing that immigrants, and even illegal immigrants, on average commit far fewer crimes than those who were born in the U.S. But in this particular case, it seems that a more aggressive and effective response by law enforcement to a parent and child crossing the border illegally might have been exactly what was needed to make Tibbetts safer.

The suspect in this case, Cristhian Bahena Rivera, has been arraigned on a charge of first-degree murder and deserves the presumption of innocence. But if the government proves its case against him, it will mean that the scenario sketched out by Sen. Warren bears a striking resemblance to the one that ultimately led to a horrific crime in Iowa. According to a CNN report on his Wednesday court appearance:

Rivera, a 24-year-old Mexican man who officials said came to the US illegally, largely remained silent in court, answering yes or no questions in Spanish through an interpreter. His defense attorney, Allan Richards, said Rivera came to the US as a minor, held a job in the community and has no prior criminal record.