“On Wednesday, The Seattle Times reported federal law enforcement had arrested “two people fighting the Bear Gulch fire on the Olympic Peninsula.”
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Out of 44 crew members onsite, “two individuals were found to be present in the United States illegally, one with a previous order of removal. The two individuals were arrested and transported to the Bellingham Station on charges of illegal entry.”
The arrest was a reversal of federal policy under two presidents. “Absent exigent circumstances, immigration enforcement will not be conducted at locations where disaster and emergency response and relief is being provided,” the Department of Homeland Security announced in 2021, during Joe Biden’s presidency. And in August 2018, under Trump, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) declared it would “suspend routine immigration enforcement operations in the areas affected by” wildfires in northern California, as well as “evacuation sites, or assistance centers such as shelters or food banks.”
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“Hispanic immigrants play a pivotal role in wildfire response,” Reason‘s Jeff Luse wrote this week. “Federal officials showing up to job sites and removing these workers from privately contracted crews will very likely delay wildfire response times and put more Americans at risk.”
CBP did not reveal the nationality of the two people arrested. Regardless, it’s especially ironic to arrest two firefighters for immigration offenses while they actively fight a wildfire that, as of Wednesday evening, was only 13 percent contained.
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there is considerable evidence the Trump administration is simply rounding up as many potential deportees as possible, regardless of the actual danger they pose.”
https://reason.com/2025/08/29/why-is-trumps-border-patrol-arresting-firefighters-during-a-wildfire