Groups ask Utah attorney general to discard 'the list'

SALT LAKE CITY — Several civil rights groups are asking Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff not to use a now-infamous list of 1,300 alleged illegal immigrants to pursue criminal charges against them.

More than 100 groups made a similar request last month to federal immigration officials. Now, many of them are asking the same of Shurtleff after media reports that he might use "the list" to help prove that some people on it were fraudulently using Social Security numbers.

"Using information that was obtained in an illegal fashion to prosecute victims of an egregious privacy breach flies in the face of long-standing criminal practice of excluding inappropriately obtained evidence," the letter said.

In other news regarding the list, a second Department of Workforce Services employee has lost her job over its release, the Associated Press reported Thursday. Information obtained by the AP through an open records request shows Teresa Bassett resigned Monday.

Bassett was a computer specialist for the department. State officials have said nearly all the information on the list was obtained from the department's files.

Bassett had been fighting her dismissal and, through an attorney, denied any wrongdoing.

The first worker to lose her job over the list was Leah Carson, who was fired shortly after it was released.

Regarding the letter to Shurtleff, groups that signed the letter include the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah, the Latin American Chamber of Commerce, Comunidades Unidas, Voices for Utah Children, the Peace & Justice Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Utah, the Utah Health Policy Project and the Enriching Utah Coalition.

Paul Murphy, spokesman for the attorney general's office, recently told the Deseret News he cannot comment about the list while an investigation into those behind it is ongoing.

"Let me just say that we are committed to finishing up our investigation into whether any state laws were broken in the release and distribution of private and protected records before we take a separate look at the potential that state laws may have been broken with potentially fraudulent Social Security numbers," he said.

The letter and the groups that wrote it, however, want Shurtleff to make a clear statement that he will not use the list to go after illegal immigrants on it.

"The vigilantism involved in creating and distributing 'the list' is as deplorable as it is illegal," said Marina Lowe, legislative and policy council for the ACLU of Utah. "Unequivocally committing not to use the list is the right and lawful course of action. We sincerely hope the attorney general will choose to go that route."