r/Wildfire • u/mittenborn • 2d ago

Bear Gulch immigration raid

Hey r/Wildfire — I'm a Seattle-based reporter working on a story about the immigration raid at the Bear Gulch Fire. Hoping to get more info from anyone who's been out there or has an account of what happened. Also looking for insight about the larger implications of immigration enforcement at active wildfires. I can talk off the record or on background with anyone who's willing to share. Please PM me if you'd like to connect. Thanks!

184 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

42 comments sorted by

169

u/elsordo69 1d ago

If any feds are thinking about speaking to the press, please consider reaching out to your union first. They can help you navigate the process to keep your job safe.

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u/mittenborn 1d ago

Yes, please take whatever steps you need to to protect your job. Again, I can connect anonymously if that enables anyone to speak more freely.

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u/Downtown_War_9996 1d ago

Hopefully Olympia is starting to get some pressure put on it to speak out about Trump and ICE with some teeth on actions they they’ll be taking to solve this. Brave people helping in a crisis deserve respect and protection from this BS. 

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u/NoSuddenMoves 1d ago

Fire is a small world and any info at all could be used to identify a source.

If you were Naomi ishitaka with seatle times rather than anonymous reddit reporter I would have more faith in people speaking with you.

I would recommend calling the pio of the fire and going through official channels. I assure you that 99% of fire personnel are on the side of the crew members.

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u/mittenborn 1d ago

Totally understand your concern. In the comments below, I included by bio, story archive and a recent story in which I interviewed wildfire personnel while protecting their identities. I have reached out to the Bear Gulch PIO and all the relevant agencies and orgs, but no one is disclosing much.

38

u/TeaCrusher Tiny iAttack Helicopter (R4) 1d ago

Team PIO is going to push the teams take, which was "we were aware of of federal agents, and it didn't effect our efforts"... But the truth is that federal agents arresting folks on an active fire completely dissolve worker trust in leadership.

As individuals, we can speak freely about the event(without speaking on behalf of an agency). A PIO is a political position, and limited to the agencies take on the event.

10

u/Earth_Muffin2 1d ago

It's a new team on the incident as of this morning. CA team 7 has demobed and handed the incident over to a Western WA type 3 team. CA team 7 had command of the fire when the arrests were made. The current team was not involved and the PIO is directing all questions to CBP.

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u/ProtestantMormon 1d ago

PIOs are going to deflect, regardless of what team was in charge.

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u/Empty_Boysenberry_75 1d ago

Do we even have a union anymore? I’m not sure where the court cases are but I thought there was an EO to end collective bargaining.

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u/elsordo69 1d ago

Bargaining units in USFS are still intact at this time and were not mentioned in that EO. Somebody feel free to correct me if that is not true. That being said, even if they formally end collective bargaining, that knowledge doesn’t disappear. There should still be people around that can guide you through media interviews.

3

u/I_H8_Celery Parasite Type 2 1d ago

The union is busy as hell, they got our probationary employees back

3

u/Far-Nature862 1d ago

Former management here. I strongly agree with you!

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u/roygbev 1d ago

Please include that the detained individuals are volunteer firefighters and members of the Umatilla Tribe

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19RLw25kP9/?mibextid=wwXIfr

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u/mittenborn 1d ago

Thank you for flagging this. Working to track down details and confirmation, please PM if there's anything you can share or people I should reach out to.

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u/roygbev 1d ago

I’m looking for a better source, will post here when I find it.

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u/Horror-Layer-8178 1d ago

WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1

u/Spiritual_Green_7757 19h ago

It’s not even close to true

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u/Mysterious_Relief_96 1d ago

Came here to say this!!!!

26

u/Particular-Walrus439 1d ago

I wonder about the larger implications on all contract crews and camp crews.

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u/elsordo69 1d ago

I wonder about the implications for all natural resource contracting, logging and adjacent industries. There are ton of Hispanic people involved of varying immigration status. Is ice going to be chasing choker setters around in the brush?

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u/Anonymous_Axolotl25 1d ago

Provide more info to show the community you’re legit. Name, examples of past articles, and how to get in touch over signal.

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u/mittenborn 1d ago

Fair request. Here's my author page: https://stateline.org/author/abrown/

Here's a story I did earlier this year on the administration's cuts to wildfire crews: https://stateline.org/2025/02/18/trumps-cuts-to-federal-wildfire-crews-could-have-scary-consequences/

I'm on Signal at abrownstateline.81.

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u/KMDiver 1d ago

Great job on your earlier story and thanks for sticking up for us and taking interest.

38

u/Kindly-Coyote-9446 1d ago

I’m not a part of any of this and don’t have 1st hand experience with the ILT, but from the main thread it sounds like a lot of people with prior experience with that leadership team have a lot of potentially relevant reservations about them.

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u/lighta_fire_orfish 1d ago

Barricade the camps. FUCK ICE!

22

u/Downtown_War_9996 1d ago

No they should be threatening a strike until the people detained are returned and they are guaranteed ICE will no longer interfere with their efforts. What a screwed up country we’re living in where people bravely trying to help in a crisis are being detained by cowards that are too scared to show their faces….

9

u/stargarnet79 1d ago

Thank you for following up on this story OP. We deserve the truth. I hope you can get it. Thank you and please keep on the good work!

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u/Natural_Flan_2802 1d ago

Insight? Ok… Full disclosure, I am NOT on this incident and this is purely my opinion. The last 25-30 years has seen declining wages/ buying power across the board. Additionally, numerous cuts to federal programs, fire included, means we can’t afford to hire enough full time, permanent seasonal or seasonal workers to fill and or create federally managed fire crews (another problem that bears discussion at another time). So what did we do? We started contracting out fire crews work. Much like any other business, the less the workers are paid, the more the contract “owner” ultimately puts in their pocket. BTW on an annual basis contract crews are less expensive, because they aren’t paid for by the government while not on fire, BUT on an hourly basis are significantly less productive (as fire suppression resources) AND cost significantly more than a federal fire crew. Apologies for deviating off the topic, but there are unfortunately much larger issues at play in the federal fire service, that again can be discussed at another time.

Anyhow given what I wrote in the previous paragraph; who can these contractors hire when they won’t give the same pay and benefits as the federal government (who again comes up short)… they hire migrant workers! The same workers who harvest crops, replant trees after a timber harvest and countless other back breaking jobs. Now, in addition to not having people to harvest crops, plant trees, replace roofs on homes, we also are going to see a significant decline in the number of available crews to work on fires and consequently we will have larger and more damaging fires. The American people will pay for it in more lost homes, higher insurance costs, more expensive fire and the associated health conditions that come from being exposed to smoke more and more often. This is just another example of the people who are in power being completely out of touch. Firefighters are the kind of people who LOVE their job. Really you either love it or you don’t do it. If the people ICE arrested were “taking American’s jobs”, the crews would be full of Americans who were willing to work for the wages the companies are willing to pay. The same as in Agricultural harvest. If Americans workers were willing to work for $3 an hour under the table, they’d be doing it. And all due respect, I don’t see a lot of white people lining up to pick crops either.

2

u/Spiritual_Green_7757 19h ago

This isn’t really true. Current contract minimums are well over gs-3 pay ($27ish with a $5 fringe rate)

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u/PrizeOk3622 1d ago

Are they arresting hand crews?

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u/ZonaDesertRat 1d ago

They took contractors working and incident into custody, allegedly for being undocumented or in violation of immigration status.

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u/Kindly-Coyote-9446 1d ago

Yeah, they arrested two people off a contract hand crew.

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u/Equal_Worldliness_61 1d ago

I read that there was 3 hours of firefighting time stopped to do crew checks. How many acres was that and what threats did it create if true?

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u/Beginning_Bat_7255 1d ago

In Olympic National Forest in the last 50 years nearly 80% of all the acres burned has occurred in the last 2 years. Around 45% in just the last 3 months with Bear Gulch Fire https://i.imgur.com/7Rgb09f.png

1

u/proofreadre 1d ago

If the fire is more than 100 miles from an intern border you don't have to answer any questions to any ICE officer unless you have been detained in relation to a criminal investigation. Full stop.

1

u/Far_Abalone2974 1d ago edited 12h ago

Thank you everyone working to help protect this forest and neighbors.

Have a couple questions for wildfire professionals here.

Are military personnel trained to help with wildfire fighting?

Are there work or volunteer opportunities at the base camps that lay people can apply to help with? Like with managing equipment, supplies, food service, etc?

Is there a recruitment office for people interested in wildfire work?

1

u/SlimPickins808101 1d ago

Any firefighter that lets this happen is not a firefighter. You are a person that protects your own!

0

u/[deleted] 1d ago edited 21h ago

when talking with a reporter nothing is ever off the record even if they promise you it's off the record 

😆 downvoting doesn't make this any less true