Did U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren suggest that Mollie Tibbetts' family has "to remember we need to focus on real problems like illegal immigrants not being able to see their kids"? No, that's not true: The viral meme distorted Warren's 2018 comments on the case in which an undocumented worker was charged and later convicted of the 20-year-old woman's murder. During that interview Warren said "we need immigration laws that focus on people who pose a real threat" and she remarked this should be prioritized over separating mothers and babies.
The claim resurfaced in a post (archived here) on X published on July 9, 2025. It showed an image that read:
So Elizabeth Warren was asked about Mollie Tibbetts being murdered by an illegal immigrant.....
Her reply was:
'I know this is hard for her family, but they have to remember we need to focus on real problems like illegal immigrants not being able to see their kids.'
Let that sink in.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories)
The post referred to the 2018 murder of Mollie Tibbetts -- a 20-year-old Iowa university student who disappeared after going for a run. In 2021, a 26-year-old undocumented worker, Cristhian Bahena Rivera, was found guilty (archived here) of abducting and stabbing her to death.
Rivera was sentenced to life in prison, and his conviction was upheld (archived here) in 2023.
When U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (archived here) was on CNN's New Day show on August 22, 2018, she was asked to comment on the case. Her remarks included some of the keywords from what social media attributed to her, but the viral quote was not authentic, and it distorted the essence of what Warren was saying.
Here is the abstract from that day's transcript of the show (archived here) that documents this moment:
BERMAN: I want to get one last question in here --
WARREN: Sure.
BERMAN: -- because it's 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?
WARREN: You know, my -- I'm so sorry for the family and I know this is hard not only 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 their 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.
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 we should be spending our resources. Separating a mama from a baby does not make this country safer.
The video recording capturing Warren's real words can be viewed here (archived here).
Several months earlier, in April 2018, the first Trump administration had announced what it described as a "zero-tolerance policy for criminal illegal entry" to the United States (archived here). Immigration enforcement led to the separation of families, and that story was heavily covered by credible news organizations -- for example, here (archived here).
In mid-June 2018, roughly two months before Warren's appearance on CNN, Donald Trump issued an executive order (archived here) to reverse family separation practices. In part, it stated that "the policy of this Administration" was "to maintain family unity, including by detaining alien families together where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources".
Over the years, the bogus quote reappeared on social media multiple times, prompting Fact Check, PolitiFact and Snopes to review the same claim as well.
Other fact checks
Lead Stories investigated other claims concerning statements about immigration. Those articles are here.
