Comments about ‘121 groups ask feds to denounce, discard 'Utah list'’

I think it needs to be determined first if the action is valid under the whistle blower act. If so then the list should be used on those that are here illegally. They are breaking the law.

regardless of how the list was obtained, if the information is accurate and includes individuals who should be deported, I see no reason not to use it.

Has the whole world gone crazy?

Is your name on "the list" Cats?
Was any of your information or you parents or childrens records scanned to find the 1,300 Cats???
The two record thieves stole private information, violated HIPPA Laws and should be jailed.
What whistle is there to be blown??
All there was that was blown was the ethics and honesty of two trusted Utah State employees.

"We believe in being HONEST, true, chaste, BENEVOLENT, virtuous and in DOING GOOD TO ALL MEN; indeed, we may say we follow the admonition of Paul---We believe all things, we hope all things, we have endured many things and hope to endure all things. IF THERE IS ANYTHING VIRTUOUS, LOVELY OR OF
GOOD REPORT OR PRAISEWORTHY, WE SEEK AFTER THESE THINGS.

So now all of you haters!! Are you following the above??? I think not.

Get over it, race and religion are not the issue, it's illegal immigration. If it's legal, then they should prosecute.

But we will have to wait until after the November elections for anything to be done.

I'm with SLars and Cats on this. Coming to this country (and by the way, any other country) illegally shouldn't be ignored. Breaking one law makes it easier to break another. As I've paid very close attention to all the reports, pro and con, involving illegal immigrants, I have to say that most of the photos and stories show young men coming here by the droves. If crime and violence were so overwhelming in Mexico, all ages would be coming to the U.S., not just mainly this select group of teenage and young adult males. And this group is the one that perpetuates the crimes.

@ SLars: The list does not fall under whistleblowing. Whistleblowing refers to notifying proper authorities of violations of laws or rules that are being committed by the company or organization for which you work. If DWS was violating the law and the employees told the State Attorney General that DWS was breaking the law, that would be whistleblowing. While the people on the list may or may not be illegal immigrants, DWS was not breaking any laws therefore the compiling of the list is not whistleblowing.

@ Cats: The list should not be used because it was compiled illegally. The rule of law means nothing if you violate the law to enforce the law. Yes - something needs to be done about illegal immigration, but it needs to be done in accordance with the rule of law. Do we really want to send the message that Americans don't have to follow American law but people from other countries do? If we are not willing to respect our own laws, why should we suppose anybody else should?

(Yes - illegal immigrants are breaking the law. But we are supposed to be better than them, remember?)

@ attentive: "Breaking one law makes it easier to break another."

And that is exactly why this list should be thrown out. We need to respect all our laws - not just the ones that people from other countries are violating.

This list was compiled and shared in violation of the law - it should be treated with the same disdain and intolerance as illegal immigration.

@Kass

Sending the list to our attorney general would not be whistle blowing. He has already said he would not prosecute people here illegally. The correct course would be to send it to ICE, which they did.

Legal, illegal, the lines are blurred so often. Many times you have to fight fire with fire.

If they can use the list, then they should.

Another pro-illegal immigration article in the Des News - what will be the one for tomorrow????

Okay, feds, "we the governed" are okay with you ignoring this list.

However, that is only on the condition that the feds (with or without the help of Utah or DWS) do just a tiny bit of research and make your own list of likely illegal aliens present in Utah. And then, get busy sending them home, and cutting off all federal, state and local benefits for them!

If two low level DWS employees can come up with 1,300 names (and assuming even half of them are actually illegals) then why cannot Homeland Security and ICE or anyone else in our trillion dollar bureaucracy come up with at least that many names?

As for all the perpetually offended do-good groups outraged at the thought of enforcing the law, you are just flat wrong to oppose enforcement of laws. Either everyone obeys them all, or those who disobey are punished.

Gov Herbert and AG Shurtleff and Chief Burbank are on the wrong side on this issue too!

Legal immigrants are welcome. Illegals go home!

RE: Cats, RRB

While we're at it, why not start going through state medical records and arresting anybody whose treatments would indicate they're involved in illegal activity? And let's subpoena Internet-usage logs from all the ISPs in the state, and start locking people up if we find anything suspicious. A lot of the porn that UT viewers look at online is not, strictly speaking, legal under UT state decency laws, after all, and order is apparently more important than those pesky privacy laws.

On a related topic, why is it that nobody calling for the immediate roundup of illegal immigrants is clamoring for the prosecution of all those polygamists in Short Creek? We know WHO they are, we know WHERE they are, and polygamy IS against the law, after all.

Why is it that so many of you who are willing to look the other way regarding the illegal actions of those two government workers who compiled this list are the same people denouncing the slow, creeping tyranny of the Federal government on other DN comments pages? Or is tyranny okay with you as long as you agree with the tyrants in power?

re: slcskp

While I agree we must abide by current law in prosecuting these two workers, I believe those laws ought to be changed.

If you require the public to pay for your medical procedures then the public has a right to know what those procedures are and who is recieving them.

Just as there is no privacy when it comes to using resources on public lands, there should be no privacy when it comes to using resources in public welfare programs.

"The letter was signed by 39 national organizations plus another 82 regional groups and civil-rights leaders from 21 states and Washington, D.C."

WOW! That is certainly a large and powerful group. I would think that the only group bigger and more powerful would be the voting citizens of the United States. I am sure glad to know that we can still use our vote to nullify the power of these special interest groups.

"The letter was signed by 39 national organizations plus another 82 regional groups and civil-rights leaders from 21 states and Washington, D.C."

WOW! That is certainly a large and powerful group. I would think that the only group bigger and more powerful would be the voting citizens of the United States. I am sure glad to know that we can still use our vote to nullify the power of these special interest groups.

owlmaster2,
I'd say you are practicing selective benevolence, ignoring those hurt by illegal immigration.

your comment was obviously meant to condemn and belittle, where's the benevolence in that?

re: slcskp

As far as internet porn, it's legal unless looking at underage children. And the state does have a task force that does subpoena internet records for possible prosecution.

I find it amusing that people want us to look the other way at when 12 million commit felonies and misdemeanors coming here illegally and working.

But let two women make up a list of them, and they run to the law crying foul. The women deserve there due process just like those here being deported.

Only 121, we have close to 40 different Hispanic organizations just here in Utah. Add in the ultra left wing and open border people and I expected more.

If you are an American and getting help from DWS and you lie, they will report you to the IRS, child services, the police, etc. A worker goes into a home and discovers a meth lab or pot growing in the back yard, you think they won't report it?

If the information they collect can be used on Americans, it can be used on people from other countries here illegally.

RE: JBrady

Those anti-obscenity laws are still on the books; they're just not enforced. In fact, I believe that most of them are categorized as misdemeanors, which technically makes them worse crimes than violating immigration laws. Like many of our other laws, they are pretty much unenforceable - people (even in Utah) won't tolerate such an invasion of privacy as locking people up for looking at naughty pictures of consenting adults.

"I find it amusing that people want us to look the other way at when 12 million commit felonies and misdemeanors coming here illegally and working."

Sneaking into this country is not a felony. Not even a misdemeanor, last I checked.

On the other hand, what these two women are accused of doing is indeed a felony. By all means, let them have their day in court, if they wish. But if they really were on some righteous crusade, I would have to think they'd have been diligent enough to verify whether some of those Hispanic-sounding names might actually have been here legally before putting them on "the list" and libeling innocent people.

Talk about straining at gnats and swallowing camels.

RE: Jash

Unfortunately, privacy has been held by the Supreme Court to be a constitutional right, and they didn't make an exemption for public funding. If you'd like to overturn those precedents, perhaps you could get yourself nominated to the SCOTUS and then have your say.

And which aspect of the law would you change to protect these women the next time around? The use of confidential state databases to wage a personal vendetta against people you don't like? The laws concerning slander and libel so you can make false accusations with impunity? Those pesky Fourth Amendment rights protecting innocent people against unreasonable searches?

What ticks me off is that this information is readily available within the Utah gov data bases and yet nothing is being done about it. (IE deporting illegal immigrants)

I agree with the whistle blower thought, this is flagrant disregard for immigration law if we know it and do nothing about it. The FEDS should keep the list or create one of their own.

Elect people this fall who will actually address immigration reform. Close the border, protect the border, send illegals home. Everyone keeps saying that it will kill our economy. Um if we clear out 14 million illegal immigrants then we can make room for LEGAL immigrants who have been waiting in line for YEARS being patient to come in the right way. We owe it to THEM.