Firefighter Arrests Spark Outcry Over U.S. Deportation Tactics

United States politicians are questioning the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation tactics after federal agents arrested two fire crew members battling the Bear Gulch blaze in Washington State.

“The two arrests and dozens of firefighters temporarily sidelined during an active wildfire raise questions about the priorities and (judgment) exercised by federal agencies,” reads a letter from 50 federal lawmakers to the heads of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Bureau of Land Management.

On August 27, Border Patrol agents demanded identification from the members of two private contractor crews—among roughly 400 people including firefighters deployed to fight the largest active blaze in the state, the Seattle Times reported. The contract fire crews had been sent to cut wood for the local community.

Border agents arrived around 9:30 AM while the crews were waiting for their division supervisor. The agents detained the crews for three hours before arresting two people they said had entered the country illegally.

Lawyers for one of the detainees said the arrest was illegal because the person “was already on track for legal status after helping federal investigators solve a crime against his family,” and has lived in the U.S. for 19 years since the age of four, reported the Guardian.

At the time, six 20-person hand crews were fighting the Bear Gulch fire, which covered nearly 36 square kilometres and was 13% contained. By September 1, it had grown by nearly two square kilometres, its containment dropping to 10%. It’s unclear what effect, if any, the arrests had on firefighting efforts. Declining containment does not necessarily mean progress is lost—the percentage can shift as a fire grows, Bear Gulch Fire Information said in a release. Progress is measured by overall risk to resources and public safety.

Rachel Lipski, a spokesperson for the multi-jurisdictional California Interagency Incident Management Team 7 coordinating the fire response, said, the Team was “aware of a Border Patrol operation here on the Bear Gulch Fire,” but it was “not interfering with firefighting activity.”

But the Washington State Department of Natural Resources said it was “not informed of the incident until well after the fact.”

The arrests have stoked fear and distrust among firefighters, writes Stateline. Some firefighters, staffers, and contractors familiar with the incident told the non-profit news organization they suspected Management Team 7 had set the crews up for an immigration check.

Border Patrol said in a statement that the two detainees were not actively assigned to fight the fire, but were instead deployed in a supporting role. But Riva Duncan, a former wildland fire chief who served more than 30 years with the U.S. Forest Service, told Stateline that claim was “total bulls***.”

“Whoever made that statement doesn’t understand the work,” Duncan said. “To take two crews off of a fire that’s only 13% contained, that seems ridiculous at that point in a fire. That does seem very unusual.”

Stateline wrote that the crews had previously been “digging holding lines, working to protect structures, and conducting mop-up work.”

Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions initially but later said the Bureau of Land Management had asked Border Patrol to confirm the identities of 44 members of the fire crews. The arrests were made after agents determined that two workers were in the U.S. illegally and that one had a previous order for removal, writes My Northwest.

“U.S. Border Patrol steadfastly enforces the laws of the United States and unapologetically addresses violations of immigration law wherever they are encountered,” USBP Blaine Sector Chief Patrol Agent Rosario P. Vasquez said in a release.

Still, the operation—in which two people who were actively involved in an emergency response were arrested—has drawn public outcry. Lawmakers say the arrests are evidence of misplaced priorities, while firefighters criticize it as a “betrayal” and a poor use of resources. Wildfire veterans said the operation was “nearly unprecedented” and breached “longstanding protocol that federal agents don’t disrupt emergency responders to check immigration status,” writes Stateline.

Several news outlets have noted that, under the Biden administration, immigration enforcement would not be conducted during disaster and emergency response and relief without “exigent circumstances.”

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