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Criminal Investigation Into Utah Immigrant List Beginning After State Employees Behind Release Found

Posted July 16, 2010 by Patrick Young, Esq.
Categories: Hate Watch

The Deseret News reports that Utah officials will turn over information on the use of a state database to generate a list of 1,300 alleged undocumented immigrants to the Utah attorney general on Monday. The Deseret News says:

State officials said Thursday that Utah Department of Workforce Services databases were indeed used to help generate a list of 1,300 supposed “illegal immigrants” that was spread to the news media and law enforcement by an anonymous group.

They also said that a woman employed at DWS had called Latino activist Tony Yapias two weeks ago to complain about illegal immigrants receiving social services. In the phone call, she identified herself only as a state employee. Yapias recorded the call.

State information technology employees who probed the origins of the list were able to determine that it came from someone at DWS, said Angie Welling, spokeswoman for Gov. Gary Herbert, “because all of the data included on the list are also contained within DWS’ database. That is, it’s a match that wasn’t found in other agencies.”

The information technology staff has now turned its attention to the DWS database “to determine who accessed the information and when, then make sure the access was not for business processes,” Welling said. “That identification process is now under way, and we expect it to be completed soon.”

By Monday, the investigation is expected to be handed to the Utah Attorney General’s Office.

While most Hispanic groups praised Herbert for quickly ordering an investigation into whether state databases had been used for the list, some groups said Herbert had not been strident enough in condemnation of the list.

They pointed to a KTVX interview of Herbert where he said the list would be illegal if it came from state sources, but the TV station said he passed on three chances to condemn the list’s existence in any circumstance. Herbert did not speak to the media Thursday, when it was confirmed that the data came from DWS.

“The governor seems to be waffling on whether this is a crime or not. We ask the governor to be serious about this. Call in all those forces that we have and resources to find out who the hell did this,” Archuleta [of the Utah Coalition for La Raza] said….

Yapias said that because of his outspoken views, he has received death threats over the past couple days that are serious enough that he has reported them to the Salt Lake police.

“They say things like, ‘Watch out for you life,’ or ‘Watch your back.’ That’s going too far,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Minutemen are praising the author or autheors of the list. The Salt Lake Tribune writes that the MInutemen believe the authors should be protected under the state’s whistle-blower law for exposing corruption:

Eli Cawley, co-chairman of the Utah Minuteman Project, said that protection could apply.

“I believe whoever prepared the list is a patriot because they revealed violations of the law” committed by the immigrants…

Today, the governor said that two state employees apparently developed the list. The Deseret News reports on the governor’s statement:

Gov. Gary Herbert said Friday that at least two employees of the Utah Department of Workforce Services took information from its databases to help compile a list of 1,300 supposedly illegal immigrants.

“We found it came from the Department of Workforce Services. And now today, I can tell you that we’ve narrowed it down to at least two people, and we believe they’re involved in creating this list, and possibly some others,” Herbert said on KSL Radio’s “Doug Wright Show.”

He and the head of DWS, Kristen Cox, scheduled an 11 a.m. press conference to address the issue.

Herbert said, “This appears to be a very deliberate, a very patient violation of security protocols by these individuals.” He said the information will be turned over to the attorney general’s office by Monday.

He also said, “This is an ongoing investigation, but we’re gradually coming together on identifying … the individuals.”

Herbert also said that it is a violation of federal law for anyone in DWS to turn over that information “no matter how noble they think it is.” Also, he said there is no ability for the state to turn over the information to federal immigration authorities.

Eli Cawley, chairman of the Utah Minutemen Project, issued a press release on Friday defending workers who released data, saying they are patriots and whistle-blowers who deserve praise and not criminal charges.

“Those who take their obligation to protect Utah citizens seriously and want to repel the invaders are great patriots,” Cawley said.