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!

186 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

45 comments sorted by

View all comments

170

u/elsordo69 2d 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.

64

u/mittenborn 2d 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.

14

u/Downtown_War_9996 2d 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. 

42

u/NoSuddenMoves 2d 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.

19

u/mittenborn 2d 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.

1

u/ProlapseMishap 1h ago

Yeah, I would trust the PAOs about as much as I'd trust the LEOs.

41

u/TeaCrusher Tiny iAttack Helicopter (R4) 2d 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 2d 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.

3

u/ProtestantMormon 1d ago

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

1

u/ProlapseMishap 1h ago

Lol don't listen to this guy.

The PAOs aren't going to say shit.

I guarantee they're going to say whatever the agency admin reps have already been told to push. The agencies DON'T have our backs and all you're going to get is the typical BS from this administration.

13

u/Empty_Boysenberry_75 2d 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.

18

u/elsordo69 2d 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 2d ago

Former management here. I strongly agree with you!