Rep. Nancy Pelosi weighs in on President Trump feud over immigration, Mollie Tibbetts case

BROOKLYN, Iowa (KGO) -- Rep. Nancy Pelosi weighed in on her feud with President Donald Trump during an event in San Francisco. The two have exchanged testy tweets over immigration following the arrest of an undocumented immigrant for the murder of Mollie Tibbetts.

The man accused of killing Tibbetts made his first court appearance in Iowa Wednesday.

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Cristhian Rivera had an interpreter next to him. Federal officials say it appears Rivera is an undocumented immigrant, though his attorney disputes that.

Trump tweeted a video today saying, "A person came in from Mexico illegally and killed her. We need the wall. We need our immigration laws changed. We need our border laws changed."

Meantime in San Francisco, House Democratic Leader Pelosi spoke at the Public Policy Institute of California and emphasized the importance of respecting the role newcomers play, quoting President Ronald Reagan. "If we ever close the door to new Americans our leadership in the world would be lost."

RELATED: Mollie Tibbetts' family releases statement

Trump called out Pelosi in an earlier video tweet Wednesday, saying, "Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats want to abolish the brave men and women of ICE, what I want to do is abolish the killers in ISIS. And you know who's going to win, we are," said the President.

Pelosi responding over Twitter that "The President is hallucinating when he characterizes democrats position on protecting the borders and defeating ISIS."

In person, she told ABC7 News that comprehensive immigration reform is necessary and had this to say about Tibbetts.

"Any death is a sad thing but the person that is accused of killing her worked for a republican employer."

RELATED: What we know about the suspect charged in Mollie Tibbetts' death

The owners of the family farm spoke out Wednesday.

"There will be plenty of time to discuss immigration but now is not the time now is a time to grieve and remember Mollie," said farmer Craig Lang.

Lang said Rivera used a false name. Also that he kept coming to work after Tibbetts disappeared and that nobody saw a difference in his demeanor. The farm manager also said the company did not use the e-verify system to verify social security numbers but rather an older system. He said they will enroll in and use e-verify for now on.

Get the latest updates on the Mollie Tibbetts case here.