Lawyer: Oregon firefighter arrested by Border Patrol during wildfire was
on track for legal status
[August 30, 2025]
By MARTHA BELLISLE
SEATTLE (AP) — Lawyers are demanding the release of a longtime Oregon
resident arrested by Border Patrol while fighting a Washington state
wildfire, saying Friday that the firefighter was already on track for
legal status after helping federal investigators solve a crime against
his family.
His arrest was illegal, the lawyers said, and violated Department of
Homeland Security polices that say immigration enforcement must not be
conducted at locations where emergency responses are happening.
He is one of two firefighters arrested this week while working the Bear
Gulch Fire in the Olympic National Forest, which as of Friday had burned
about 14 square miles (36 square kilometers) and was only 13% contained,
forcing evacuations.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement Thursday that it
had been helping the Bureau of Land Management with a criminal
investigation into two contractors working at the fire when it
discovered two firefighters who they said were in the country without
permanent legal status.
The firefighter, whose name has not been made public, has lived in the
U.S. for 19 years after arriving with his family at age 4. He received a
U-Visa certification from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon in 2017
and submitted his U-Visa application with the U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services the following year.
The U-Visa program was established by Congress to protect victims of
serious crimes who assist federal investigators, and the man has been
waiting since 2018 for the immigration agency to decide on his
application, according to Stephen Manning, a lawyer with Innovation Law
Lab, a Portland-based nonprofit that's representing the firefighter.
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.
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After lighting a fire line to burn up fuel for the Lick Creek Fire,
a crew of firefighters begin to put out the flames, July 12, 2021,
south of Asotin, Wash. (Pete Caster/Lewiston Tribune via AP, file)
“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.
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