MSNBC and NBC report:
Utah officials said Thursday they had uncovered evidence that someone used a state employment database to help anti-immigration activists compile a list purporting to identify 1,300 illegal immigrants.
Angie Welling, a spokeswoman for Gov. Gary R. Herbert, said the information in the list was “contained entirely in the Department of Workforce Services database.” She said investigators expected to turn their evidence over to the state attorney general’s office by Monday.
Workforce Services officials told NBC station KSL-TV of Salt Lake city that more than a thousand state workers had access to the database.
Using state resources to compile the list would violate several state and federal privacy laws, state officials and legal scholars said.
Latino activists called circulation of the list “domestic terrorism” and called for a federal investigation Thursday.
Read more on MSNBC.
Update 4: Brock Vergakis now reports that two workers in the Dept. of Workforce Services have been identified as being involved.