Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Salt Lake City Mayor on Lying Airport Workers

Aired December 12, 2001 - 09:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us now is Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson.

Good to see you, sir. Thanks for joining us this morning.

MAYOR ROCKY ANDERSON, SALT LAKE CITY: Good to see you, Paula. How are you?

ZAHN: Fine, thanks.

We just heard what your U.S. attorney had to say, that he did not believe there was any evidence linking those arrested to any potential terrorism activity, yet he went on to say, when he announced the crackdown -- I'm going to read his quote directly -- quote -- "People who have lied to get access, they become much more subject to blackmail. A terrorism could threaten to expose the illegal workers, to coerce them into helping with a terrorism plot."

So is the U.S. attorney basically saying even if these people are not terrorists, they certainly could be bought off?

ANDERSON: Well, he is saying that because these people did lie about their Social Security numbers, or about other matters, in order to get their employment, that they might be subject to somebody coming in and getting them to do something wrong, with the threat of exposing the fact that they had lied to get their employment.

That is somewhat speculative, but these people are mostly economic migrants. They are people who are here without documentation. They are struggling to make a living, and I think, frankly, a lot of these people were doing what a lot of folks in our hotel and restaurant industry do, but they were in restricted, secured areas.

We are going to do everything possible to make certain that those security areas are, in fact, secure.

ZAHN: So how did it happen in the first place?

ANDERSON: These people were not employees of the airport. They are employees of contractors -- some of the security firms, the food service firms, maintenance people -- and their employers, apparently, didn't even bother to confirm that their Social Security numbers matched up with the names. I really think that these folks have been left in a very bad situation, they and their families, because now they are going to be subjected to prosecution and, potentially, deportation, when they probably didn't really realize they were doing anything much different than what some of our restaurant and hotel workers are doing, who are never being focused upon by prosecutors.

ZAHN: But you're not telling us this morning you would have been wholly comfortable with them having the kind of access they did with secure areas...

ANDERSON: Absolutely not.

ZAHN: ... having lied on ID applications...

ANDERSON: Not at all. No, I'm saying we need it take every possible measure, and these employers should have taken every possible measure, to make certain that the information was correct. We can't have anybody in our secured areas that has lied about any of the information concerning their backgrounds.

And it is absolutely appropriate that every airport in this country do the same thing that has happened here, in fact, before there is a big investigation, and move toward prosecution, and going to grand juries. I would submit that mayors where there are airports, and airport directors, ought to be getting the word out to employees if you lied to get employment, you better get out, terminate your employment, do not spend another day in one of these restricted secured areas, because we're not going to tolerate it.

ZAHN: Mayor Anderson, good to see you, good luck as you have this pretty short run-up to the open of the Olympics. Nice to see you again.

ANDERSON: Thank you very much, Paula. Good to see you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com