US firefighter detained on the job speaks out after deportation: I feel betrayed'

"Jose Bertin Cruz-Estrada was responding to a wildfire in Washington state on 27 August when four unmarked vehicles drove up to his crew's remote location in a national forest. Cruz-Estrada, part of a team of 20 Oregon-based firefighters, had spent a week hiking through dense terrain, battling smoke and clearing fallen trees and other debris to prevent the Bear Gulch fire, a 9,000-acre blaze, from growing."

"That morning, they were waiting for a taskforce leader to provide instructions, but Cruz-Estrada quickly realized the men arriving in trucks were not emergency responders. They were US border patrol agents. The armed officers surrounded the firefighters, directing them to line up while agents checked IDs. Officers cleared the crewmembers one-by-one until they got to Cruz-Estrada, 35, who they said was under arrest. The agents handcuffed him and another firefighter and drove the two away from the forest, where the fire was only 13% contained."

"Activists celebrated when, four weeks later, Rigoberto Hernandez Hernandez, the other detained immigrant firefighter, was freed and returned home to Oregon. Cruz-Estrada, however, remained locked up. And at the end of October, after two months of detention, he was quietly deported to Mexico. Now separated from his 14-year-old son, his mother and two brothers, Cruz-Estrada is speaking out for the first time, questioning why the US government targeted him on the job, after years of public service."

Jose Bertin Cruz-Estrada, an undocumented Oregon resident, was working with a 20-person firefighting crew combating the Bear Gulch fire in a Washington national forest on 27 August. Four unmarked vehicles arrived and agents identified themselves as US Border Patrol, surrounded the crew, checked IDs and detained two firefighters. Cruz-Estrada was handcuffed, taken from the forest where the fire was 13% contained, and imprisoned for two months. Rigoberto Hernandez Hernandez, the other detained firefighter, was released after four weeks and returned to Oregon. Cruz-Estrada was quietly deported to Mexico at the end of October and is now separated from his 14-year-old son, mother and two brothers. He questions why immigration enforcement targeted him despite years of public service and local community support.

Read at www.theguardian.com