Washington Governor Bob Ferguson and Washington Senator Patty Murray, both Democrats, on Thursday condemned President Donald Trump’s administration for the alleged arrest by immigration authorities of two wildland firefighters working to contain a fire in the state.
The firefighters, who were members of a team attempting to contain the flames of the Bear Gulch Fire in the Olympic National Forest, were detained Wednesday by the Department of HomelandSecurity (DHS), the Department of Natural Resources confirmed.
Ferguson said this morning that he is “deeply concerned about this situation” and has ordered an investigation into what happened.
For more than three hours, DHS agents demanded identification from members of two private contractor crews, who were among hundreds of firefighters, deployed to fight the wildfire, the largest active fire in Washington state, the Seattle Times reported.
As of Wednesday morning, the fire, located east of Seattle, covered nearly 9,000 acres (3,642 hectares) and was 13% contained.
The arrest of the firefighters also drew outrage from Senator Murray, who also charged today against President Donald Trump’s Administration and its campaign of mass deportations calling the policy “sick and perverse.”
“This new Republican policy of stopping firefighters on the job is as immoral as it is dangerous,” Murray added in a statement, in which he highlighted the importance of the work of firefighters in the face of fires, which in recent years have devastated entire towns on the U.S. West Coast.
On Thursday, U.S. border policy czar Tom Homan warned that immigration operations would be intensified in sanctuary cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle, all of which have policies that limit police cooperation with immigration authorities, according to EFE.
For more information, visit QuéOnnda.com.
