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             All of the Wendover illegal aliens named in a list released by two Utah State employees were not only known to the state authorities but actually receiving welfare or social assistance, confirmed state and Tooele County officials this week.
    The names addresses and phone numbers of about a dozen Wendover, Utah residents appear on a list of 1300 alleged illegal immigrants mailed to Utah newspapers, television and radio stations.
    The list which also included Social Security numbers and other personal information of 1,300 people was mailed by an group calling itself “Concerned Citizens of the United States” . A letter accompanying the list demanded that those on it be deported immediately. In addition to the list and the letter addressed to local media and law enforcement was a copy of another letter dated April 4th  to “Customs and Immigration”.
    While the list was mailed anonymously an investigation ordered by Utah Governor Herbert revealed that the list was compiled by at least two perhaps more state employees who had access to the states welfare rolls.
    Herbert said the employees work for the Department of Workforce Services, which administers food stamp programs and other public benefits. The employees have been placed on administrative leave.
    “It’s a very small group. The people we’ve identified certainly have some strong political opinions and seem to be frustrated with some of the issues around immigration,” said Kristen Cox, executive director for the department. “I think it’s an immense hypocrisy to talk about taking people to task for being illegal and doing so by breaking the law.”

          Hispanic advocates applauded how quickly the state acted to find the source of the leak and to assure the community that state policy doesn’t allow for just anyone to access private information.
    “The governor took the first step today to bring that trust back again,” said Tony Yapias, former director of the Office of Hispanic Affairs.
    Intentionally releasing a private record in Utah is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. If someone stole such a record, it could be prosecuted as a felony with a penalty punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
    “We will begin an immediate, aggressive, formal investigation,” Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff promised Friday on a conference call with national and local Hispanic leaders.
    But while Utah government was receiving kudos from some interest group, there is a growing sentiment on the street in Wendover at least that is supportive of the list’s authors.

  “When I first heard about it, I felt pretty bad for the people named,” said one Wendover official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “But then when I found out that they were all on the county welfare roles I lost all sympathy for them. Illegal aliens are supposed to get welfare. And they (state workers) knew they were illegals and they still signed them up for the programs. That’s crazy. One on hand we have ICE agents raiding the town and on the other we have government paying them our tax dollars to stay here.”
    According to Tooele County Domestic Violence Advocate, Jaqueline Motley and Tooele County Victim/Witness Coordinator, Holly Johnson the list or at least the Wendover names on it is disturbingly accurate.

    “All of the seven names you (the High Desert Advocate) gave me are genuine and yes they are all illegal,” Motley said. “Several of the residents are however in the process of getting proper documentation (to stay in the United States).”
    Last month Utah based ICE agents armed with assault rifles and backed up by a Black hawk helicopter descended on the border town to conduct a 13 hours long raid on both sides of the Nevada/Utah state line.
    All of the eight arrested were identified by ICE as ‘international gang members. However a search of local law enforcement revealed just one of the eight had serious rap sheet.
    According to the Elko County Sheriff’s Department, Rafael Ruvalcaba-Mendoza was arrested and booked into the Elko County Jail  on traffic warrants June 1007. In May 1008 he was booked for assault deadly weapon but the charges were later dropped. In June 1008 he was arrested again on an unspecified warrant. In August 1009 he was arrested for drug possession. In May 2010 he was booked for resisting arrest and in early June 2010 he was again arrested for drug paraphernalia and resisting arrest.
    Ten Wendover men were taken in ICE custody. Two of the 10 were released that day after their documentation was found to be in order. The remaining eight were booked into the Salt Lake county Jail to await their hearings in Immigration court.
    A week after their arrests the Wendover eight were transferred to the long term ICE holding facility at the Utah County Jail in Spanish Fork.
    Since the transfer three of the original eight Gustavo Sandoval Edwin Mendoza-Chavez and most recently Fernando Reyes Escobedo have been deported to Mexico.
    According to a spokesman at the Utah County Jail the steady pace of the deportations, one a week, is a little unusual.
    “Generally Thursday is the big day for deportations,” he said. “They deport about 50 to 60 on that day alone and then it slows to like one or two for the rest of week. It is kind of unusual that the ones who are still here are still here after more than a month but on the hand we have had some illegals here for a year.”
    Escobedo, the most recent Wendover deportee was the man posed shirtless by ICE agents shortly after his arrest to show off his ‘gang tattoo’s’. However according to one local, none of the tattoos, ICE released were specifically gang oriented. The most common mark of a gang member at least in Wendover is the number 13 derived by the name “Sur 13” the largest and oldest Wendover gang.
    Latinos make up between 50 to 60 percent of Wendover’s population and while a great many took advantage of the immigration amnesty offered in the late 1980’s, many did not and since then a new wave of migrants mostly from Mexico and mostly illegal have come to Wendover.