Attorneys are calling for the release of a longtime Oregon resident who was arrested by Border Patrol agents while helping fight a wildfire in Washington state, arguing the arrest was unlawful and violated Department of Homeland Security policies, according to the Associated Press.
The firefighter, whose name has not been made public, was taken into custody this week while working on the Bear Gulch Fire in the Olympic National Forest.
As of Friday, the fire had burned about 14 square miles and was only 13% contained, forcing evacuations.
Lawyers representing the man said Friday that he has lived in the U.S. for 19 years, arriving at age 4, and has been on track for legal immigration status for years.
He received a U-Visa certification in 2017 from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon for helping investigators solve a crime against his family, and he filed his U-Visa application with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services the following year.
The program, established by Congress, protects victims of serious crimes who cooperate with federal investigators.
Stephen Manning, an attorney with the Portland-based nonprofit Innovation Law Lab, said that another Homeland Security policy protects people who are waiting for a decision on victim-based immigration applications.
Manning described the arrest as “an illegal after-the-fact justification” given his client’s pending U-Visa status.
Border Patrol said in a statement Thursday that agents were assisting the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) with a criminal investigation into two contractors working at the wildfire when they discovered two firefighters allegedly lacking permanent legal status.
Federal officials have not disclosed details about the terminated contracts or why 42 firefighters were escorted off the job.
A BLM spokesperson said only that the agency routinely cooperates with others, including Homeland Security, to protect natural resources and maintain public safety.
The firefighter’s attorneys say he has not been located within the immigration detention system, and they are demanding his immediate release.
Messages to Border Patrol and Homeland Security seeking responses to the lawyers’ claims were not returned.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, condemned the arrest, saying the federal government appeared more focused on raids than on protecting communities from catastrophic wildfires.
Wyden also referenced the death of an Oregon firefighter who was killed Sunday while battling a wildfire in 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 Associated Press.
Meanwhile, officials said the number of personnel fighting the Bear Gulch Fire dropped from 349 on Thursday to 303 on Friday as crews continued efforts to slow the spread of the state’s largest active wildfire.
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