By Gustavo Sagrero Álvarez, KUOW
U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested two firefighters working on the Bear Gulch Fire on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula on Wednesday, accusing them of being in the U.S. illegally.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement Thursday that the two men were arrested after "several discrepancies" emerged as officials verified the identities of contracted workers at the fire. Immigration officials said that one of the men had previously received an order of removal.
Neither federal nor state officials have publicly named the men.
David “Buenos” Diaz is a crew boss leading one of a few freelancer teams combating the Bear Gulch Fire and witnessed the arrests. He said the lead fire management team sent workers out to cut wood Wednesday morning, and once they were finished, the division lead was going to meet them out there to see what other tasks they could do.
“The previous seasons were never like this, but I know the world's changing,” Diaz said. “This was not a good way to experience [this], but now we know what we expect in our future.“
The teams he works with are composed of visa workers from Mexico and U.S. citizens, including members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon.
“Everybody works. You know, no matter what ethnicity you are, we're all there for the same thing. We're all there to help the communities out, help the forest and just protect and serve,” he said.
The arrests followed an employment verification requested by the Bureau of Land Management, according to a statement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The Bureau of Land Management was terminating the contracts of two companies working on the fire, ASI Arden Solutions and Table Rock Forestry Inc.
In a statement Thursday, Sen. Patty Murray slammed the arrests as unnecessary, and demanded “immediate answers” as to why the men were arrested on the job, and what the immigration enforcement policy is during active wildfires.
“Here in the Pacific Northwest, wildfires can, and have, burned entire towns to the ground,” Murray wrote. “We count on our brave firefighters, who put their lives on the line, to keep our communities safe — this new Republican policy to detain firefighters on the job is as immoral as it is dangerous.”
After the arrests were first reported by the Seattle Times, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson posted to social media that he was “deeply concerned about this situation with two individuals helping to fight fires in Washington state" and had directed his team to get more information.
Rachel Lipski, a public information officer from the Western Washington Type 3 Incident Management Team, said the group is “aware” of a Border Patrol operation at the Bear Gulch fire, but it’s “not interfering” with efforts to contain the fire.
The wildfire started July 6 on the north side of Lake Cushman, near Mount Rose in Olympic National Forest. As of Wednesday, the blaze is 13% contained and has burned a total of 8,960 acres, according to a press release from the Incident Management Team. The exact cause of the fire remains under investigation, but firefighters know it was human caused.
Immigration enforcement at the site of a wildfire response is unusual. During the 2021 wildfire season, Department of Homeland Security guidance stated that “absent exigent circumstances, immigration enforcement will not be conducted at locations where disaster and emergency response and relief is being provided, such as along evacuation routes, sites used for sheltering or the distribution of emergency supplies, food or water, or registration sites for disaster-related assistance or the reunification of families and loved ones.”
KUOW has requested updates about whether this policy has shifted.
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
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