July 19, 2010, - 11:38 am
Heroes: “Snooping” Utah State Workers & Mysterious List of 1,300 Illegal Aliens
Hmmm . . . it’s gotta be embarrassing for Barack Obama’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), when two Utah state workers can instantly do the job his immigration enforcers refuse to do. It’s yet another example why Arizona’s immigration law was necessary and needs to be spread nationwide, as well as an analysis of state databases.
For nearly a week, Utah officials–including the state’s attorney general–have been up in arms over a list of 1,300 alleged illegal aliens, which was mailed to law enforcement and the media. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, a Republican, is launching an investigation and a task force to look into how the list was compiled and the info obtained to create it. Hmm . . . if only he worked this hard to actually locate and deport the illegal aliens on the list. He likens the list to a “hit list” and says it makes it harder for his investigators to go after illegal aliens. No, it exposes that he and his investigators aren’t doing their jobs.
Although some of the list allegedly have green cards, most reports indicate that the list of 1,300 is largely accurate. Most of the people on it are here illegally and are collecting oodles of state and federal benefits. That’s why they are in the database. They’re collecting food stamps and plenty of other costly entitlements.
Now, at least two Utah state employees, who work for Utah’s Department of Workforce Services, are in trouble for illegally accessing the confidential documents and databases to create the list. But here’s the thing: why is this illegal? Why won’t states look at the list, say, “Hey, you’re not supposed to be here,” and dispatch their state police to pick them up and deport them. 1,300 isn’t that many. It can–and should–be done.
And, as far as accessing these precious, confidential databases, it’s interesting who is protected . . . and who isn’t. If you’re a dad who is allegedly behind on child support, not only will every state in the Union access its databases and keep you from getting your benefits, but it will use various benefits and entitlement databases to find you and, likely, arrest you.
But if you’re an illegal alien, whose entire family is living off the state and you’ve not paid a dime toward supporting your kids, well, then . . . how dare state employees look you up and report you.
And that’s the thing here: it’s an embarrassment–an embarrassment to Utah and an embarrassment to the federal government. In a matter of minutes, two lowly state employees put together the list of illegal aliens sucking Utah dry and notified police and the public. And if it takes only two people to do this, why does it take 300 million taxpayers to pay for a giant bloated federal agency to enforce the law . . . and we still can’t get it done?
No one supports illegally accessing private databases, but illegal aliens have and should expect no right to privacy under the law. These two Utah state employees are heroes . . . not criminals. And I celebrate what they did.
After all, they are doing the proverbial “work that American just won’t do.” Call it civil disobedience. That’s what it is.
Tags: 1300, Attorney General, Department of Workforce Services, ICE, Illegal Aliens, Immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, immigration enforcement, list, Mark Shurtleff, Utah
I would think this would be a great way to enforce the immigration laws. After all, how can a computer database racially profile?
David Makowsky on July 19, 2010 at 12:00 pm