{"id":19325,"date":"2025-09-04T19:10:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T19:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=19325"},"modified":"2025-09-04T19:10:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T19:10:18","slug":"why-is-trumps-border-patrol-arresting-firefighters-during-a-wildfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=19325","title":{"rendered":"Why Is Trump&#8217;s Border Patrol Arresting Firefighters During a Wildfire?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>&#8220;On Wednesday,&nbsp;<em>The<\/em>&nbsp;<em>Seattle Times<\/em>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.seattletimes.com\/seattle-news\/climate-lab\/federal-agents-arrest-firefighters-working-on-wa-wildfire\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>&nbsp;federal law enforcement had arrested &#8220;two people fighting the Bear Gulch fire on the Olympic Peninsula.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;Out of 44 crew members onsite, &#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;The arrest was a reversal of federal policy under two presidents. &#8220;Absent exigent circumstances, immigration enforcement will not be conducted at locations where disaster and emergency response and relief is being provided,&#8221; the Department of Homeland Security&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/publication\/dhs-statement-safety-and-immigration-enforcement-during-2021-wildfire-season\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced in 2021<\/a>, during Joe Biden&#8217;s presidency. And in August 2018, under Trump, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ice.gov\/news\/releases\/dhs-statement-regarding-safety-and-enforcement-during-northern-california-wildfires\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">declared<\/a>&nbsp;it would &#8220;suspend routine immigration enforcement operations in the areas affected by&#8221; wildfires in northern California, as well as &#8220;evacuation sites, or assistance centers such as shelters or food banks.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Hispanic immigrants play a pivotal role in wildfire response,&#8221;&nbsp;<em>Reason<\/em>&#8216;s Jeff Luse&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2025\/08\/28\/trumps-immigration-crackdown-could-make-wildfire-season-deadlier-this-year\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote this week<\/a>. &#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CBP did not reveal the nationality of the two people arrested. Regardless, it&#8217;s especially ironic to arrest two firefighters for immigration offenses while they actively fight a wildfire that,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/08\/28\/us\/border-patrol-bear-gulch-fire.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">as of Wednesday evening<\/a>, was only 13 percent contained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>there is considerable evidence the Trump administration is simply rounding up as many potential deportees as possible, regardless of the actual danger they pose.&#8221;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/reason.com\/2025\/08\/29\/why-is-trumps-border-patrol-arresting-firefighters-during-a-wildfire\">https:\/\/reason.com\/2025\/08\/29\/why-is-trumps-border-patrol-arresting-firefighters-during-a-wildfire<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;On Wednesday, The Seattle Times reported federal law enforcement had arrested &#8220;two people fighting the Bear Gulch fire on the Olympic Peninsula.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p> Out of 44 crew members onsite, &#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> The arrest was a reversal of federal policy under two presidents. &#8220;Absent exigent circumstances, immigration enforcement will not be conducted at locations where disaster and emergency response and relief is being provided,&#8221; the Department of Homeland Security announced in 2021, during Joe Biden&#8217;s presidency. And in August 2018, under Trump, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) declared it would &#8220;suspend routine immigration enforcement operations in the areas affected by&#8221; wildfires in northern California, as well as &#8220;evacuation sites, or assistance centers such as shelters or food banks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hispanic immigrants play a pivotal role in wildfire response,&#8221; Reason&#8217;s Jeff Luse wrote this week. &#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>CBP did not reveal the nationality of the two people arrested. Regardless, it&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>there is considerable evidence the Trump administration is simply rounding up as many potential deportees as possible, regardless of the actual danger they pose.&#8221;  <\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/reason.com\/2025\/08\/29\/why-is-trumps-border-patrol-arresting-firefighters-during-a-wildfire\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[2108,838,221,1827,186,26,493,25,170,1003],"class_list":["post-19325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-deport","tag-deportation","tag-donald-trump","tag-fire","tag-fires","tag-illegal-immigration","tag-immigrants","tag-immigration","tag-trump","tag-wildfires"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19325"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19326,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19325\/revisions\/19326"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}