Members of Congress Demand Answers after Firefighters Arrested at Bear Gulch Fire

Fifty members of Congress, including several Washington Democrats, are calling on the Department of Homeland Security for answers after two crew members fighting the Bear Gulch fire were arrested by immigration officials.

Two people fighting the fire on the Olympic Peninsula were arrested by federal law enforcement Wednesday, as depicted in photos and videos. The two firefighters entered the U.S. illegally, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Thursday in a news release.

The 9,200-acre wildfire is one of Washington's largest. The crews, pictured wearing protective clothing and hard hats common on fire lines, were part of the 300-person effort to contain the fire, which started July 6 about 10 miles northwest of Hoodsport, Mason County.

The arrests occurred after federal agents checked the IDs of two private contract firefighting crews who were sent to the northeast side of Lake Cushman. The detainment of the two firefighters received swift backlash from elected leaders across the Northwest and nationwide.

Fifty members of Congress questioned the action in a letter Friday to DHS, CBP and the Bureau of Land Management.

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 the letter, spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Emily Randall. Randall's congressional district includes the Olympic Peninsula, where the fire is burning.

On Saturday afternoon, Randall attempted to enter the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, where she confirmed the two firefighters are currently being held, under her right to congressional oversight.

Randall said she was denied entry to the facility by an official of GEO Group, the private company that operates the immigration detention center. Other congressional leaders have also been blocked from making oversight visits at facilities across the country.

"My plan is to keep showing up, to keep communicating to ICE and GEO and Homeland Security and the Trump administration that we will not ignore their actions, and we will not let them do their work quietly without a spotlight," she said in an interview Saturday.

In their letter, the lawmakers specifically requested clarification on Immigration and Customs Enforcement's policies regarding arrests in disaster areas. The letter claims standard emergency protocols "shield first responders" who are working in hazardous conditions from ICE. The lawmakers say those protocols weren't followed.

"The arrest of these hardworking crew members, who put their lives on the line to perform lifesaving duties, is not making our communities safer, no matter the rhetoric you use on TV," the lawmakers said. "The Trump Administration’s thoughtless and cruel immigration enforcement at any cost undermines coordinated emergency response efforts."

Before the arrests, the contract fire crews had been sent to the northeast side of Lake Cushman. They had been assigned to a Community Hazard Reduction Project, cutting wood to reduce the fuel available for the fire.

The Department of Homeland Security claimed Friday that the two arrested were not technically firefighters because they were cutting wood.

"The two contracted work crews questioned on the day of their arrests were not even assigned to actively fight the fire; they were there in a support role, cutting logs into firewood," the Friday post on X reads. "The firefighting response remained uninterrupted the entire time."

Elected officials and those in the wildland firefighting community cast doubt on the federal government's claim.

Randall said to battle wildfires in rocky, hilly, densely forested terrain like the location of the Bear Gulch blaze, fuel management like cutting firebreaks and chopping logs is critical.

"What people in fire country know is that fighting a wildland fire is not the same as showing up to put out a house fire," Randall said.

"Every person who shows up to do this work, whether they're a contractor, a DNR firefighter or a crew member who's a volunteer from Texas or Florida, they're all fighting this wildfire together."

Todd Graves, president of the Washington Contract Firefighters Association, said every crew member responding to a wildland fire must have an Incident Qualification Card, commonly referred to as a red card, which certifies the person can complete firefighting duties.

At a bare minimum, the federal government's statement is confusing, Graves said.

"It kind of seems like in their statement they were indicating that they were not firefighters, so why would nonfirefighters be out there on the fireground?" he said. He added that the two contract crews targeted in the operation, ASI Arden Solutions Inc. and Table Rock Forestry Inc., are "hardworking and professional."

The U.S. Department of the Interior defines an entry-level wildland firefighter as someone who, among other tasks, chops brush. Forest Service spokesperson Jennifer Risdal did not respond directly to questions about the veracity of the DHS post.

"USDA Forest Service is aware of a Border Patrol operation on the Bear Gulch Fire," Risdal said in an emailed statement Saturday. "There have been no impacts to firefighting efforts and progress continues to be made on containment.

The fire was 13% contained as of Saturday afternoon, according to a federal interagency report.

Seattle Times reporter Isabella Breda contributed to this report.

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