By Steve Neavling
Federal immigration agents arrested two Mexican contractors fighting a wildfire in Olympic National Forest, marking one of the first times such enforcement has taken place inside an active fire zone, firefighters said.
The two were detained Wednesday morning at a staging site near Lake Cushman, where 44 crew members had gathered about a mile from the Bear Gulch fire line, according to crew boss David Diaz, NBC News reports. “We’ve just been followed the whole time,” Diaz said, recalling black trucks he had seen trailing his crews since they arrived in Washington.
Videos posted online show Border Patrol agents detaining the two men, while the rest of the crew was lined up for questioning. Diaz said they were forced to wait for three hours and not allowed to say goodbye.
“All I could do was hand one of the detained men a mango cream soda,” he said.
CBP said the arrests followed a Bureau of Land Management investigation into the contractors’ companies, Oregon-based Table Rock Forestry and Idaho-based ASI Arden Solutions. Both contracts have since been terminated. CBP said one of the men had a prior removal order.
Gov. Bob Ferguson said he was “deeply concerned” about the arrests. Veteran firefighter Steve Gutierrez called the timing troubling, saying, “This wouldn’t happen with the Forest Service,” which requires strict background checks.
Diaz said the action will only worsen firefighter shortages.
“There’s already a lack of resources. Wildfires could get out of hand, bigger than what anyone expects,” he said. “This is the first time this has happened in all my 26 years. They could have done this in a more humane way.”
