By Matt McKnight
TACOMA, Washington (Reuters) -Two firefighters who were responding to a wildfire in the state of Washington when they were detained by U.S. border agents are being held at an ICE detention center in Tacoma, a U.S. congresswoman said on Saturday.
U.S. Rep. Emily Randall, a Democrat who represents the district where the detention center is located and the fire is burning, told Reuters she made an unannounced visit to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility on Saturday.
She said she was not allowed inside, but that officials there confirmed they were holding the two people working for companies that had been contracted to help fight the 9,000-acre Bear Gulch fire in the Olympic National Forest.
Federal officials have not named the two arrested on Wednesday.
Randall said she had been unable to speak to the detained firefighters.
In a letter to U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon on Thursday, lawyer Stephen Manning said his Portland, Oregon, firm was representing one of those arrested, an Oregon resident Manning said was unlawfully detained.
Manning, who was seeking Wyden’s help in gaining his client’s release, said the man had come to the United States with his family as a four-year-old about 19 years ago and was awaiting a response to a visa application made after he and his family were victims of a crime in Oregon.
According to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection statement on Thursday, the Bureau of Land Management had terminated contracts with the firefighting companies after completing an unspecified criminal investigation.
The BLM asked for Border Patrol help verifying the identities of 44 members of the companies’ work crews. Two of those people were arrested after being determined to be in the U.S. illegally while the other 42 were escorted off the federally owned land.
The wildfire broke out on July 6 and was 13% contained on Saturday.
“What’s really troubling to me this week is the unprecedented coordination between BLM and Border Patrol to raid an active response site,” she said. “This 9,000-acre fire has yet to burn a home or kill anyone, but that is because of the incredible work of fire crews who are managing timber, who are cutting firebreaks to ensure that the fire doesn’t spread into more populated areas.”
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said on Friday that the detained people were providing support roles and not actively fighting the fire when Border Patrol agents conducted the identity check. The department said their arrests did not affect firefighting.
The wildfire broke out on July 6 and was 13% contained on Saturday.
Washington State Department of Resources Commissioner Dave Upthegrove told Reuters that details of the criminal investigation of the contractors were unclear.
“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,” he said.
ICE officials have criticized the Trump administration’s push for high daily arrest quotas that have led to the detention of thousands of individuals with no criminal record, as well as long-term green card holders, others with legal visas, and even some U.S. citizens, according to Reuters reporting.
(Reporting by Matt McKnight in Tacoma; Additional reporting by Ted Hesson and Valerie Volcovici in Washington. Editing by Donna Bryson and Richard Chang)
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