SEATTLE (AP) — Attorneys are calling for the release of a longtime Oregon resident who was detained by the Border Patrol while combating a wildfire in Washington state. They asserted on Friday that the firefighter was already pursuing legal residency by aiding federal investigators in resolving a criminal matter involving his family.
The arrest is deemed unlawful, according to the attorneys, and breaches Department of Homeland Security guidelines, which stipulate that immigration enforcement should not take place at sites where emergency operations are ongoing.
He is one of two firefighters detained this week while battling the Bear Gulch Fire in the Olympic National Forest. As of Friday, the fire had scorched nearly 14 square miles (36 square kilometers) and was only 13% contained, prompting evacuations.
A statement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Thursday indicated that the agency was aiding the Bureau of Land Management in a criminal probe involving two contractors at the fire scene when they identified two firefighters believed to lack permanent legal residency.
The firefighter, whose identity remains undisclosed, has resided in the U.S. for 19 years, having arrived with his family at the age of 4. In 2017, he secured a U-Visa certification from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon and filed his U-Visa application with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services the subsequent year.
The U-Visa initiative was created by Congress to aid victims of serious crimes who cooperate with federal investigations. According to Stephen Manning, an attorney with Innovation Law Lab, a nonprofit organization based in Portland representing the firefighter, the individual has been awaiting a decision on his application from the immigration agency since 2018.
Another Homeland Security policy says agents can’t detain people who are receiving or have applied for victim-based immigration benefits, his lawyer said. Charging the man with an immigration violation was “an illegal after-the-fact justification” given his U-Visa status.
His lawyers said Friday that they located him in the immigration detention system and were able to make contact. They were still processing information and are demanding his immediate release, they told the AP in an email.
A senior DHS official said in a statement to the AP on Friday that the two men apprehended were not firefighters and were not actively fighting the fire. Officials said they were providing a supporting role by cutting logs into firewood.
“The firefighting response remained uninterrupted the entire time,” the statement said. “No active firefighters were even questioned, and U.S. Border Patrol’s actions did not prevent or interfere with any personnel actively engaged in firefighting efforts.”
When the Bureau of Land Management was asked to provide information about why its contracts with two companies were terminated and 42 firefighters were escorted away from the state’s largest wildfire, it declined. It would only say it cooperates with other federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security.
“These law enforcement professionals contribute to broader federal enforcement efforts by maintaining public safety, protecting natural resources, and collaborating with the agencies, such as the Border Patrol,” Department of Interior spokesperson Alyse Sharpe told The Associated Press in an email.
Manning said in a letter to Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, that the arrest violated Homeland Security policy.
Wyden was critical of the Border Patrol’s operation, saying President Donald Trump’s administration is more concerned about conducting raids on fire crews than protecting communities from catastrophic fires. Firefighters put their lives on the line, Wyden emphasized, such as the Oregon firefighter who died Sunday while battling a wildfire in southwestern Montana.
“The last thing that wildland firefighter crews need is to be worried about masked individuals trampling their due process rights,” Wyden said in an email to the AP.
Meanwhile, wildfire officials were still trying to get control of the Bear Gulch Fire. The number of personnel working on the blaze was listed at 303 on Friday, down from 349 on Thursday.
