Two Firefighters Arrested at WA Wildfire in Country Illegally, Border Patrol Says
The Seattle Times
(TNS)
The two firefighters arrested at the Bear Gulch fire had entered the U.S. illegally, according to a news release Thursday from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The statement is the first time the federal government has commented on the arrests that sparked outrage from elected leaders across the Northwest.
Federal officials said agents on Wednesday from the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and Border Patrol carried out an operation at a wildfire worksite in which the contracts of two private firefighting firms were terminated after the conclusion of a criminal investigation by BLM."
Border Patrol did not provide details of the criminal investigation. Becky Andres, the special agent in charge of law enforcement and security for the BLM region, including Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, did not return a call seeking more information.
Many questions remain unanswered about the incident, including whether businesses or firefighters were targeted in the criminal investigation, and whether the investigation was connected to the arrests.
According to the release, federal agents checked the identities of 44 people from the privately contracted firefighting crews and arrested two of them. The firefighters were working on the Olympic Peninsula, fighting the state's largest active wildfire.
Before the confrontation, the contract fire crews had been sent up to the northeast side of Lake Cushman. The Incident Action Plan, a document outlining firefighting activities of the day, assigned the crews "to a Community Hazard Reduction Project." They were told to cut wood for the community.
Among the firefighters was Michael Kerwin-Smith, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
While they were waiting for their division supervisor to arrive for about an hour, he said, federal law enforcement showed up in unmarked vehicles. It felt like a setup, he said.
The agents asked the crews to line up to check their IDs.
Kerwin-Smith said he felt racially profiled for having dark skin. He said he had heard reports from other tribal members who had federal officers ask them for IDs, but he didn't think it would happen to him.
The firefighters were interrogated and held at the site for about three hours, Kerwin-Smith said, while some were ordered to leave.
Firefighters were shaken and felt intimidated by the confrontation with federal law enforcement, in which they were denied the opportunity to say goodbye to crew members who were detained and told not to take video.
"The people that they detained were my really good friends, and one of them was even a role model," Kerwin-Smith said. "I don't know what they're going through. But it just sucks."
The agents identified two people who were in the U.S. illegally, the release said, and they were taken to a detention facility in Bellingham.
Colin Fieman, the federal public defender in Western Washington, said his office has not been notified of any criminal charges filed pending the actions on the contractors. Fieman said the men must appear before a magistrate within 24 hours of arrest, at which time a criminal complaint could be filed. Fieman said there is a part-time magistrate in Bellingham, where the men were taken.
A telephone message left with the U.S. attorney's office was not immediately returned Thursday afternoon.
Under President Donald Trump, the Department of Homeland Security has aggressively ramped up immigration enforcement actions, rounding up immigrants — here both legally and illegally — across the country.
In July, more than 40% of immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington had not been convicted or charged with a crime, including immigration-related crimes, according to government information obtained through Freedom of Information requests by the University of California’s Deportation Data Project.
Isa Peña, director of strategy for Innovation Law Lab, the law organization representing one of the firefighters who was detained, said the firefighter was arrested unlawfully. Innovation Law Lab staff attorney Rodrigo Fernandez-Ortega said they have been searching for their client since Wednesday afternoon.
"(Customs and Border Protection) has concealed his whereabouts — our client has not been able to make contact with his lawyer or family, ... and our attempts to use the DHS’ systems to locate him failed. We demand that they allow him to access counsel as is his right afforded by the U.S. Constitution,” Fernandez-Ortega said.
The contractors were identified as ASI Arden Solutions Inc. and Table Rock Forestry Inc.
Table Rock crew boss David Diaz was with his crew when the federal agents arrived. He said in an interview Thursday that no one from his crew was detained in the incident.
He said he wishes the operation could have happened in more of a humane way, rather than sending them to a remote area with no cell service or ability to call their families or company leaders to let them know what was happening.
Diaz said he hadn't participated in any criminal investigation, and nobody from his crew was cited or charged, but they were kicked off the fire.
Table Rock has a history of supporting migrant communities.
On Feb. 3, the company posted on social media it would be closed for a day "standing in solidarity with our migrant community and their families."
Border Patrol said in the release that BLM asked the agency, because of the “remote location of the work site,” to assist in “verifying the identities of all personnel present.”
The state Department of Natural Resources has been a part of the response to the Bear Gulch fire but was unaware of the incident until a reporter from The Seattle Times called a spokesperson Wednesday. The agency joined a video conference call with federal agencies that had led the operation on the fire crews.
“While we don’t have all of the details yet," Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove said in a statement, "this is all occurring at a time when the Trump administration’s crude and inhumane approach to immigration enforcement has intentionally and unnecessarily stoked fear and mistrust among members of the public — including firefighters putting their lives on the line to protect our State."
The Border Patrol said the arrests didn't interfere with the firefighting operation and touted it as a successful government collaboration.
"This cooperative effort highlights the coordination between federal agencies in ensuring the integrity of government operations and maintaining public trust in fiduciary matters," Chief Patrol Agent Rosario P. Vasquez said. " U.S. Border Patrol steadfastly enforces the laws of the United States and unapologetically addresses violations of immigration law wherever they are encountered.
U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D- Wash., blasted the Trump administration over the arrests of the firefighters. “No one should assume this was necessary or appropriate,” she said in a Thursday statement.
Seattle Times staff reporters Nina Shapiro and Conrad Swanson contributed to this report.
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