Vigilante illegal alien list 'most likely' sprang from Utah state agency

Utah Governor Gary Herbert has ordered an investigation regarding a list of 1,300 alleged illegal immigrants that was sent to state and federal agencies by an unknown group.

The New York Daily News reports, "The list has Utah's Hispanic community filled with fear."

Social Security numbers for 31 people are on the list, as well as the names and dates of more than 200 children and the due dates of six pregnant women, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

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Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, using his Twitter account, urged agencies to find out whether their workers were involved in compiling the list.

"Have asked state agencies to conduct a review," Herbert tweeted, writing that if private information was released "we'll turn it over to the authorities."

A previous version of the list was sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in April, signed by "Concerned Citizens of the United States."

Salt Lake Tribune reporter Robert Gehrke told MSNBC's Tamron Hall that the probe will begin by looking into who has access to government databases.

"Any time anybody accesses one of these state databases it kind of leaves behind fingerprints," said Gehrke. "So, what they're doing is all of these agencies that might have this information are going in to find out who, you know, who's been accessing their databases and if any of the information lines up."

"The assumption right now is that a state agency is sort of the most likely suspect because of the detail of the information that was provided," he said.

The Associated Press reports, "The list's release comes as several conservative Utah lawmakers consider sponsoring a tough new illegal immigration law similar to the one passed recently in Arizona."

Newser's Kevin Spak blogs, "It’s unclear how accurate the list is."

The Tribune contacted two women on the list at random, and both said they were in the country legally. Nearly every surname on the list is Latino. The leader of one Hispanic organization decried the list, and amazingly, so did a representative from Utah Minuteman Project, saying the list might disparage actual citizens. But he added that he wished he had that kind of data. Then “I might really be able to report some illegal immigrants to ICE.”

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