The police are looking at all options which is cop shorthand for they suspect the husband or the family. The liklihood of this being a hate crime is remote. Seriously remote. The more likely is that someone close to her killed her and is trying to deflect on it being a hate crime.
This woman lived in this country for the past 20 years, she lived in a city with a very large Iraqi population in an Iraqi neighborhood. Surrounded by Iraqis, it is not like some one in the neighborhood suddenly woke up after 20 years and decided this one woman should go back to her country. There is no history of hate crimes in El Cajon. No graffiti, no complaints, no background of El Cajon being hostile to Iraqis. Iraqi children don't have problems in schools. Next, she was beaten to death. No vandalism in the home, nothing was taken, this has every indication of being a very personal act with a lot of rage behind it.
I saw one interview, the father didn't say anything being "too overcome with grief" he kept his eyes covered. The daughter had the most to say, about the note and it being a hate crime, but had no history of hate herself. Odd. No one had ever said anything to her, she never got called a name, neither had her mother, or anyone in the family.
Someone in this family killed this woman. For any one of a hundred reasons.