Wildfire veterans consider prime officers on the fireplace despatched their crews into an immigration verify.
By Alex Brown for Sateline
Wildland firefighters have been surprised when federal immigration authorities final week raided an energetic wildfire response in Washington state, arresting two firefighters and sidelining crews for hours.
Wildfire veterans say the operation was almost unprecedented, a breach in longstanding protocol that federal brokers don’t disrupt emergency responders to verify immigration standing.
Worse, many wildfire veterans consider the administration crew overseeing the fireplace crews performed a key function in handing over the firefighters to immigration authorities.
Stateline spoke to just about a dozen firefighters, company staffers and contractors accustomed to the incident, who shared their perception that the highest officers assigned to the fireplace deployed the crews to a distant location below false pretenses so federal brokers might verify their immigration standing. Most of them spoke privately for worry of retaliation.
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The raid has reverberated amongst fireplace crews, company leaders and contractors. Wildfire veterans say the arrests have stoked worry and mistrust amongst firefighters on the bottom. They fear that crews could also be scared to deploy if they could turn out to be a goal for immigration raids.
“There’s really no way [the wildfire management team] could not have been involved,” mentioned Riva Duncan, a former wildland fireplace chief who served greater than 30 years with the U.S. Forest Service. “We’re all talking about it. People are wondering if they go on a fire with this team, if that could happen to them.”
For the reason that incident grew to become public, the wildfire world has been abuzz with anger at that crew — California Interagency Incident Administration Crew 7. Made up of federal, state and native fireplace professionals, the crew was assigned to supervise the response to the Bear Gulch fireplace, which has burned 9,000 acres in and round Olympic Nationwide Park in Washington state.
One firefighter who was current on the raid mentioned he’s satisfied that Crew 7 leaders despatched their crews right into a lure.
“I felt beyond betrayed,” mentioned the firefighter, who requested anonymity to guard his profession. “What they did was messed up. They’d been talking in their briefings about building relationships and trust. For them to say that and then go do this is mind-boggling. It boiled my blood.”
In line with every day Incident Motion Plans filed by Crew 7 and posted on-line, the crews had beforehand been digging holding traces, working to guard buildings and conducting mop-up work. The 2 crews focused by federal brokers had not been assigned to work collectively within the days main as much as the raid.
Then, on Aug. 27, each crews — employees from non-public firms contracted to assist combat the fireplace — have been instructed to deploy to a staging space the place they’d lower firewood for the area people. The firefighter who was current on the raid instructed Stateline {that a} division supervisor instructed the crews he would meet them on the web site, however by no means confirmed up.
After arriving on the web site, the firefighter mentioned, the crews discovered piles of logs, seemingly from a timber operation. Not wanting to break a logging firm’s property, they waited for a administration crew chief to point out up with additional directions.
After an hour, unmarked regulation enforcement automobiles pulled as much as the location and federal officers started questioning the firefighters. Duncan, the previous Forest Service firefighter, mentioned immigration brokers wouldn’t have been in a position to entry the location with out assist from Crew 7 leaders.
“Fire areas are officially closed, very secure and there are roadblocks,” she mentioned. “Somebody would have had to tell these agents how to get there.”
Desk Rock Forestry Inc., an Oregon-based firm whose crew was one of many two on the scene, was allegedly subjected to the raid attributable to a half-hour discrepancy on a time sheet, mentioned Scott Polhamus, secretary of the Group of Fireplace Contractors and Associates. Desk Rock Forestry is a member of the fireplace contractors’ group.
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A number of wildfire veterans mentioned that point card discrepancies will not be unusual at wildfires, the place crews work lengthy days and it’s not all the time clear if lunch breaks or errands on the town rely towards working hours. Such mix-ups are usually sorted out between organizational leaders. Calling regulation enforcement in such a state of affairs is sort of unprecedented.
“This is not the first time a crew has been called on the carpet for maybe padding their time a bit,” Duncan mentioned. “You deal directly with the company. It’s just absolutely mind-boggling to treat it as a criminal issue.”
After about 5 minutes discussing the time card subject, in accordance with the firefighter who was current on the raid, federal brokers spent the following three hours checking every firefighter’s immigration standing.
Polhamus, with the fireplace contractors’ group, mentioned that declare is fake. Whereas the crews have been demobilized and despatched residence, the feds haven’t really ended the businesses’ contracts or capacity to just accept future deployments.
A Customs and Border Safety public affairs specialist didn’t instantly reply to questions in regards to the investigation, the alleged fraud or federal brokers’ coordination with Crew 7.
The Washington State Division of Pure Assets, the state’s lead wildfire response company, mentioned federal officers didn’t notify their state counterparts in regards to the investigation.
“DNR was not informed of the incident until well after the fact,” mentioned Ryan Rodruck, wildfire on-call public info officer with the company.
Rodruck famous that the fireplace response was below the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service. Press officers with the Forest Service didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
A number of wildfire sources mentioned the crews wouldn’t have been despatched to the staging space the place they have been ambushed with out the data of prime leaders on the fireplace’s administration crew.
The 2 crews that have been raided have a various mixture of firefighters, a lot of them Hispanic. One of many crews has many international employees who’re legally within the nation on H-2B visas. Duncan, the previous Forest Service firefighter, mentioned it was seemingly not a coincidence that two crews with many brown-skinned members have been focused within the raid.
Two of the firefighters have been arrested, federal officers mentioned, for being within the nation illegally.
One of many firefighters who was arrested is represented by Innovation Regulation Lab, an Oregon-based authorized group that defends refugees and immigrants. Isa Peña, the group’s director of technique, mentioned the Division of Homeland Safety has not revealed the whereabouts of their consumer.
The firefighter, who Peña declined to call, has been within the U.S. since he was 4 years outdated and served as a firefighter for the previous three years. Immigration advocates are alarmed that the raid was probably organized by California Interagency Incident Administration Crew 7, the leaders charged with overseeing the wildfire response.
“There certainly is concern if that is the case that individuals are being handed over to immigration as they’re trying to keep our communities safe,” Peña mentioned. “Conducting immigration enforcement while brave members of our community are risking their lives to protect us is really disgusting.”
A number of wildland fireplace veterans additionally famous that the raid occurred on Crew 7’s closing day answerable for the fireplace response, hours earlier than a Washington crew rotated in to take command. The California crew headed residence and left the brand new crew to face the media scrutiny and indignant firefighters in camp.
“If you’ve got ICE teams pulling your contractors out, you’d want to cut and run as soon as you can,” Polhamus mentioned.
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On a discussion board for wildland fireplace professionals on the social media platform Reddit, many expressed anger at Crew 7. Firefighters additionally took subject with the assertion, shared by federal immigration officers, that the raid didn’t disrupt firefighting operations.
“It’s total bulls***,” mentioned Duncan, the previous Forest Service firefighter. “Whoever made that statement doesn’t understand the work. To take two crews off of a fire that’s only 13% contained, that seems ridiculous at that point in a fire. That does seem very unusual.”
Many wildfire veterans mentioned that conducting a raid on the web site of an energetic wildfire was reckless and irresponsible.
“Having people on the line that you don’t expect to be there is an issue,” mentioned Polhamus, with the fireplace contractors’ group. “When you need crews and you are taking resources to check them for immigration status, we can all think of better ways to address that.”
Duncan mentioned she’s spoken with firefighters nonetheless assigned to the Bear Gulch fireplace who’re disgusted with the state of affairs and need to go away.
“The three principal wildland fire values are duty, respect, integrity,” she mentioned. “Utmost in that is taking care of your people. If you can’t trust the people you’re working with when things get hairy, that’s a concern.”
