Nearly one month after immigration officials arrested an Oregon wildland firefighter while he fought a blaze in Washington state, his attorneys are petitioning for his release, saying his due process rights have been violated.
Rigoberto Hernandez Hernandez, 23, was arrested Aug. 27 during a raid while fighting the Bear Gulch Fire in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, along with one other firefighter. He is currently being held at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma, according to his attorneys at Innovation Law Lab.
Hernandez’ attorneys announced in a Friday press conference that they filed a habeas petition asking to appear before a federal judge and demand the release of their client. They also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order.
“Federal agents illegally arrested a firefighter in the middle of that region’s largest wildland fire in decades, and then doubled down on their illegal actions by not allowing him to make or receive calls from his family and attorneys for two days,” said Rodrigo Fernandez-Ortega, an attorney representing Hernandez.
Representatives from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately return requests for comment about the petition Friday.
Border Patrol representatives said in an Aug. 28 statement that the arrests “did not interfere with firefighting operations or the response to any active fires in the area, nor did it pose any danger to the surrounding community.”
Hernandez grew up in the U.S., and his parents were migrant farmworkers and traveled across multiple states for work. According to his attorneys, he and his family were victims of a federal crime and have since applied for a U-Visas, which grants temporary legal status to non-Americans who are victims of serious crimes. He’s currently a resident of Keizer, Oregon.
This was his third year working as a wildland firefighter, according to Fernandez-Ortega.
“For me, firefighting is much more than a job. It is a calling,” Hernandez wrote in a statement that was read aloud by his attorneys. “It has given me clarity in how I think and how I want to act and be in the world. I want to be able to continue to protect the land, the wildlife and the people of this country.”
Since the arrest, some have raised concerns that the managers of the firefighting team might have played a role in organizing the raid. Afterwards, both firefighting firms — Table Rock Forestry and ASI Arden Solutions Inc. — saw their contracts with the federal government canceled.
Innovation Law Lab attorneys said Friday they believe it’s the first time immigration officials have arrested someone participating in a wildfire response.
Many elected leaders have condemned the arrest. U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., called the Trump administration’s immigration policy “fundamentally sick.”
“Here in the Pacific Northwest, wildfires can, and have, burned entire towns to the ground,” Murray wrote in an Aug. 28 statement. “We count on our brave firefighters, who put their lives on the line, to keep our communities safe — this new Republican policy to detain firefighters on the job is as immoral as it is dangerous.”
This story comes to you from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
