Introduction
Introduction Statistics Contact Development Disclaimer Help
.-') _ .-') _
( OO ) ) ( OO ) )
.-----. ,--./ ,--,' ,--./ ,--,'
' .--./ | \ | |\ | \ | |\
| |('-. | \| | )| \| | )
/_) |OO )| . |/ | . |/
|| |`-'| | |\ | | |\ |
(_' '--'\ | | \ | | | \ |
`-----' `--' `--' `--' `--'
lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
Border Patrol arrests 2 crew workers helping battle Washington’s
biggest wildfire for being in the country illegally
By Celina Tebor, CNN
Updated:
10:32 AM EDT, Sat August 30, 2025
Source: CNN
Border Patrol agents on Wednesday arrested two crew workers helping to
contain Washington state’s biggest wildfire, saying they were in the
United States illegally. Lawyers for one of the men dispute that
characterization, alleging he was already on track for legal status.
The Bureau of Land Management and the US Forest Service had requested
support from a local Border Patrol station as the agencies terminated
work contracts with two firms on the Olympic Peninsula, according to a
news release from US Customs and Border Protection.
Without offering details, the agency said the contracts were ended
following the conclusion of a criminal investigation by the Bureau of
Land Management.
“Several discrepancies were identified, and two individuals were
found to be present in the United States illegally, one with a previous
order of removal,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a
statement Thursday.
The two contracted workers arrested were there in a support role,
cutting logs into firewood, according to a senior DHS official.
“The firefighting response remained uninterrupted the entire time,”
a senior DHS official said in an updated statement Friday.
CBP said the two people were arrested and taken to Bellingham Station
near the Canadian border.
The Bear Gulch Fire on the peninsula has already torched almost 9,000
acres in the Olympic National Forest.
The Bureau of Land Management requested that Border Patrol verify the
identities of all the personnel present “due to the remote location
of the work site,” the release states.
Officials handling the Bear Gulch Fire in northwest Washington said in
a short statement Thursday they “are aware of a Border Patrol
operation here.”
“The Border Patrol operation is not interfering with firefighting
activity and Bear Gulch firefighters continue to make progress on the
fire,” the statement continued.
The Seattle Times .
Washington Rep. Emily Randall’s office confirmed the arrests in an
email to CNN.
Waiting for a decision since 2018
A longtime Oregon resident was one of the two arrested, , citing
lawyers for the man, who on Friday told AP his client was already on
track for legal status after helping federal investigators solve a
crime against his family.
The man, whose name has not been made public, has lived in the US for
19 years after arriving with his family at age 4, his attorneys told
AP. He received a U-Visa certification from the US Attorney’s Office
in Oregon in 2017 and submitted his U-Visa application to US
Citizenship and Immigration Services the following year.
Stephen Manning, a lawyer with Innovation Law Lab, a Portland-based
nonprofit representing him, told AP he has been waiting since 2018 for
the immigration agency to decide on his U-Visa application, which
protects victims of serious crimes who assist federal investigators.
Charging the man with an immigration violation, the lawyer argued, was
“an illegal after-the-fact justification” given his visa status.
CNN has reached out to DHS seeking comments on this case.
Manning alleged his client was also protected by a DHS policy barring
immigration enforcement in emergency response areas, but DHS has
previously said that he and the other man arrested were there only in a
supporting role.
The lawyers said they were able to locate the man in the immigration
detention system and made contact on Friday. They are still processing
information and are demanding his immediate release, according to the
AP.
Coordination between agencies
The Border Patrol operation comes as President Donald Trump has cracked
down on immigration across the country. In the first seven months of
his second term, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported
nearly 200,000 people, – putting the federal agency on track for its
highest rate of removals in at least a decade but still short of the
administration’s stated deportation target of 1 million deportations
a year.
“This cooperative effort highlights the coordination between federal
agencies in ensuring the integrity of government operations and
maintaining public trust in fiduciary matters,” US Border Patrol
Blaine Sector Chief Patrol Agent Rosario P. Vasquez said in a
statement. “U.S. Border Patrol steadfastly enforces the laws of the
United States and unapologetically addresses violations of immigration
law wherever they are encountered.”
The human-caused wildfire on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula has been
burning since July 6 and was just 13% contained as of Thursday. A red
flag warning will remain in effect until 9 p.m. local time Thursday,
and thunderstorms and gusty winds could worsen firefighting conditions.
Firefighters are battling the flames following intense heat waves in
Western Washington that have spiked temperatures as much as 20 degrees
above normal and stretched for days at least twice in August.
What is the policy for disaster areas?
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said he is “deeply concerned” about
the arrests.
“I have asked my team to reach out to federal agencies for more
information, to determine where these two individuals are, and to
question why the Trump Administration’s cruel immigration policies
now extend to individuals fighting forest fires,” Ferguson said in a
statement to CNN.
Washington Sen. Patty Murray demanded answers from the federal
government about the circumstances of the incident in a statement
Thursday.
“Trump has undercut our wildland firefighting abilities in more ways
than one—from decimating the Forest Service and pushing out thousands
of critical support staff, to now apparently detaining firefighters on
the job,” she said in a statement. “This administration’s
immigration policy is fundamentally sick. Trump has wrongfully detained
everyone from lawful green card holders to American citizens—no one
should assume this was necessary or appropriate.”
Under the Biden administration, the Department of Homeland Security
“at locations where disaster and emergency response and relief is
being provided” such as evacuation routes or areas where emergency
supplies are being distributed.
Under Donald Trump’s first presidential administration, as wildfires
and burned over 300,000 acres in 2018, it would “suspend routine
immigration enforcement operations in the areas affected by the
fires,” except if a serious criminal presented a public safety
threat. The agency also said it wouldn’t conduct any operations at
evacuation sites or assistance centers. It is unclear if that stance
has changed under Trump’s second administration.
Washington state Rep. Shaun Scott said a decrease in wildfire
mitigation funding has only exacerbated the issue.
“Earlier this year, a Democratically controlled Washington State
Legislature, with the Democratic governor … slashed wildfire
mitigation funding to the tune of $60 million. It’s about a 50%
reduction,” Scott, a Democrat, told CNN’s Victor Blackwell
Saturday.
“We all right now need to be thinking about what we can do in our
state legislatures across the country to combat not just the federal
authoritarianism that we are seeing, but also making sure that we’re
not imposing austerity policies that also don’t make people any
safer,” Scott added.
This story has been updated with new developments.
CNN’s Mary Gilbert and Karina Tsui contributed to this report.
<- back to index
You are viewing proxied material from codevoid.de. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.