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Immigrant charged in Iowa student’s death was known by alias
KBUR radio ^ | 9/5/2018

Posted on 09/05/2018 2:57:48 PM PDT by iowamark

The Mexican man charged with abducting and killing an Iowa college student was known for years on the dairy farm where he worked by another name: John Budd.

The alias has emerged as Cristhian Bahena Rivera’s employer, a cattle operation owned by a prominent Republican family, faces questions over whether its managers were aware of any warning signs that he was in the country illegally.

The name under which Rivera was hired and paid for the last four years was confirmed by three people with knowledge of his employment history. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information during an ongoing criminal investigation. One of the people said Rivera’s work identity as John Budd appears in official government records.

The employer, Yarrabee Farms, declined to confirm or deny Rivera’s work identity. Lori Chesser, an immigration employment lawyer advising the farm, said that companies cannot discriminate against workers based on how they look or how their names sound.

Farm officials have said Rivera presented an out-of-state photo identification and a Social Security number when he was hired in 2014, and they believed he was the person depicted in those documents until his arrest last month.

The farm followed legal requirements to examine the documents and determined “that they appeared genuine on their face and related to the person presenting them,” Chesser said. “Questioning a name or other characteristic would violate the anti-discrimination provisions of the law.”

During his four years at the farm near the small town of Brooklyn, Iowa, Rivera “was called and responded to the name he used in the hiring process,” Chesser said. He lived in a trailer owned by the farm as a benefit of his employment, as do about half of its 10 workers. The farm did not use the government’s voluntary E-Verify system, which allows companies to confirm the identity and eligibility of employees to work in the U.S. Farm manager Dane Lang has apologized for a mistake in falsely claiming to have used E-Verify in an initial statement on Rivera’s Aug. 21 arrest, hours after he allegedly led police to Mollie Tibbetts’ body in a nearby cornfield.

It’s unclear whether E-Verify would have detected any red flags with Rivera’s claimed identity, but the farm has said it used a different government service to confirm that the name and Social Security number matched. Police say Rivera followed and confronted Tibbetts while she was out for a run on July 18 and later stabbed her to death. He has been jailed on $5 million bond while awaiting trial on a first-degree murder charge, which carries a sentence of life in prison. The federal government has also filed an immigration detainer, which means he would be subject to deportation proceedings if acquitted.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement declined to comment on whether the agency is investigating Yarrabee Farms, which has said that it received dozens of angry phone calls after Rivera was arrested...

Employers typically do not face legal consequences for hiring a worker under false documents as long as they were not involved in obtaining them and had no other obvious reason to suspect they are fraudulent, said Bob Teig, a retired federal prosecutor in Iowa.

“Absent unusual circumstances, it would be difficult to show they knew any more than what they were told,” Teig said, adding that it would be “pretty racist” to assume a John Budd could not be Hispanic.

Whether anyone else knew Rivera as John Budd is unclear. The 24-year-old had a Facebook page under his real name, and his account listed many friends from the central Iowa area. He has a girlfriend and a young daughter, his former attorney has said.

Rivera had neither an Iowa-issued identification under any name nor any known criminal history or interactions with police. It’s unclear who owned the car that he allegedly used to circle Tibbetts.

Rivera’s former defense lawyer, Allan Richards, has accused the farm and other employers in the area of turning a “blind eye” to the reality that many of their workers are in the U.S. illegally and employed under false documents. He has said that Rivera came to the U.S. when he was around 17 and has the equivalent of a middle-school education...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Iowa
KEYWORDS: aliens; johnbudd; mollietibbetts

1 posted on 09/05/2018 2:57:48 PM PDT by iowamark
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To: iowamark

At a minimum he shoulda used “Juan Budd”.


2 posted on 09/05/2018 3:00:09 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: iowamark

https://www.spokeo.com/John-Budd


3 posted on 09/05/2018 3:03:05 PM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: iowamark

Who actually owned John Budd’s Social Security number? Who owned his car, used in the murder?


4 posted on 09/05/2018 3:05:44 PM PDT by iowamark
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To: iowamark

They found a Republican...this guy is screwed.


5 posted on 09/05/2018 3:08:35 PM PDT by Leep
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Until this country gets complete control of it’s borders and
crossings then illegals are going to be a problem. Enticement
of jobs with better pay is the major drawing card.

Even legal Visa entrants overstay and become illegals. Some
sources say they outnumber the illegals that cross the border.

snip
More people overstayed their visas in 2017 than crossed into
the United States illegally that year, the Department of
Homeland Security said Tuesday.

DHS said almost 702,000 people who entered the U.S. legally
last year didn’t leave the country in time, and were deemed
to be in the U.S. illegally.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/visa-overstays-outpaced-illegal-border-crossings-in-2017-dhs


6 posted on 09/05/2018 3:21:50 PM PDT by deport
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To: iowamark

They did not use E-verify. No telling how many other illegals they have at that location now or in the past and whatever crimes in addition to coming in the country illegally they’ve done. ID Fraud would be the next thing to check for on everyone they’ve hired, going back years.


7 posted on 09/05/2018 3:25:03 PM PDT by Notthereyet (Notthereyet)
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To: iowamark

John McCain fought hard for this guy to be in our homeland.


8 posted on 09/05/2018 3:45:01 PM PDT by Dagnabitt
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To: deport

Many don’t even overstay but come on tourist visas and work. They take a trip home every 6 months so they don’t overstay but are still violating the terms of their visa.


9 posted on 09/05/2018 3:51:30 PM PDT by posterchild (anti-science: thinking a fetus is distinct from a tumor and sex is determined by chromosomes)
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To: iowamark
...Rivera presented an out-of-state photo identification...

Which state issued this ID?
10 posted on 09/05/2018 3:52:51 PM PDT by posterchild (anti-science: thinking a fetus is distinct from a tumor and sex is determined by chromosomes)
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To: iowamark

“The Mexican man charged with abducting and killing an Iowa college student “

How difficult is it to type “illegal alien”?


11 posted on 09/05/2018 4:14:39 PM PDT by antidemoncrat
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To: Paladin2

Run John Budd through E-verify and see if how far it gets. My guess is that everything about the real John Budd is completely different than the illegal John Budd. Also, there is a good chance the real John Budd is dead. The employer does not want to know the truth. This farmer needs a deep on-site audit by the IRS covering the last few years. How do you think that would go?


12 posted on 09/05/2018 4:28:19 PM PDT by Stevenfo
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To: iowamark

They knew.
Charge them.


13 posted on 09/05/2018 4:38:35 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here of Citizen Parents__Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: iowamark
With all the reasons why he wasn't called on this, the guy could have gotten away with using Mrs. Nussbaum's ID.

(Gratuitous "The Jerk" reference.)

14 posted on 09/05/2018 5:15:29 PM PDT by niteowl77
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To: iowamark

stolen ID and stolen Social Security number

Will the real John Budd stand up?? - or are you in the cemetery and ID stolen from the obituary?

All these questions certainly have been investigated. How about sharing the info??


15 posted on 09/05/2018 5:27:26 PM PDT by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said theoal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-hereQaeda" and its allies.)
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To: Lurkinanloomin

Wouldn’t it make more sense to charge the people who issued the drivers license used to identify him as a legal?

Or would that be too tough, and it makes more sense to go after the easy stuff?


16 posted on 09/05/2018 5:45:33 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle ( The Great Wall of Trump ---- 100% sealing of the border. Coming soon.)
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To: Balding_Eagle

No, good idea, go after whoever is providing the fraudulent documents to the fraudulently documented foreigners.


17 posted on 09/05/2018 5:51:57 PM PDT by Lurkinanloomin (Natural Born Citizen Means Born Here of Citizen Parents__Know Islam, No Peace - No Islam, Know Peace)
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To: Lurkinanloomin

That’s where the ‘leak’ is.


18 posted on 09/05/2018 6:04:53 PM PDT by Balding_Eagle ( The Great Wall of Trump ---- 100% sealing of the border. Coming soon.)
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