Utah state officials are questioning several more Department of Workforce Services employees are being questioned for possible involvement with creating the infamous "illegal immigrant list."
Eight more employees from the Utah Department of Workforce Services are being questioned in connection with a leaked list containing personal information of 1,300 alleged illegal immigrants, Dave Lewis, a department spokesman, said Monday afternoon.
He said that makes a total of 10 employees questioned, including the two placed on administrative leave last week.
Investigators are interviewing employees who have had access to certain cases "for legitimate business reasons," he said. "We want to give them the opportunity to explain work they're doing."
Initially, state officials thought "a very small group" was responsible. But if they're looking at that many additional suspects, we may be looking at a wider conspiracy than first thought. Then again, it doesn't come as big of a surprise that they're widening the net. After all, we know as many as 1,200 people had access to this data--a major fail on Utah's part.
State attorney general Mark Shurtleff was on American Morning earlier today, and said that those involved could face some serious charges.
Shurtleff said the alleged crimes may have broken both state and federal privacy laws, and some may have been felonies, so if appropriate, it could be a multi-level investigation. He added that crimes may have been committed not only in generating and preparing the list, but also in how the list was used. Some of the alleged illegal immigrants listed have reported harassment since their names appeared on the list.
"Clearly, it's not even meant as a blacklist. It's more like a hit list. It is, I think, to put people at fear, to terrorize, to get people mobilized to do things. The fact is, the names on that list are also innocent until proven guilty and we're finding that some of those names ... are here legally," Shurtleff said.
Video of Shurtleff's full interview here:
I'd have liked Shurtleff to add that this is unacceptable even if there actually were illegal immigrants on this list. There is no legitimate reason to release names of people's children or due dates for pregnancies. Then again, this sort of thing isn't entirely surprising when you consider that there are supposedly people who are below the law.