Two Mexican wildfire crew members were arrested this week by federal agents—in the middle of fighting an active wildfire in Washington state.

They were part of a 44-person crew working under contract to battle the Bear Gulch fire, which has already burned nearly 9,000 acres. Both men had traveled across the country to risk their lives for a job that most Americans won’t do. Instead of being recognized for their courage, they were detained by Border Patrol right at the fire line.

This kind of immigration enforcement isn’t just cruel—it’s dangerous.

Wildfire crews across the Pacific Northwest are already stretched thin. Washington and Oregon rely heavily on contract workers due to a federal firefighter shortage. If we start targeting those crews, we don’t just lose skilled labor—we lose time, coordination, and the trust that holds emergency response together.

This would never happen to federal firefighters. But for private crews, especially immigrants, this may be the new reality under the Trump administration’s policies—which recently eliminated rules protecting disaster zones from immigration raids.

We are calling on:

• U.S. Customs and Border Protection to immediately release the detained crew members and reinstate their eligibility for wildfire assignments
• Department of Homeland Security to restore the ban on immigration enforcement in disaster zones, including active fire areas
• Congress to launch an oversight investigation into whether these arrests violated national emergency response protocols.

The workers were pulled from the fire line, held without due process, and denied the chance to even say goodbye to their crewmates. One was handed a mango soda as a quiet gesture of solidarity before being taken away.

This is not how you treat people who come to help.