"Lawyer Rodrigo Fernandez-Ortega said they filed a petition for habeas corpus and a motion for a temporary restraining order that seeks the man's release from the Northwest ICE detention center in Tacoma, Washington. Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said in an email to The Associated Press that the two men were not firefighters - they were working in a support role cutting logs into firewood."
"Lawyers with the Innovation Law Lab said during a press conference that his arrest was illegal and violated U.S. Department of Homeland Security polices that say immigration enforcement must not be conducted at locations where emergency responses are happening. The Bear Gulch Fire, one of the largest in the state, had burned 29 square miles by Friday and was 9% contained. The Border Patrol said at the time that the two workers were in the U.S. illegally so they were detained."
An Oregon man, Rigoberto Hernandez Hernandez, was taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol agents while fighting a wildfire in Washington and is being held at the Northwest ICE detention center in Tacoma. He and another worker were part of a 44-person crew on the Bear Gulch Fire in Olympic National Forest. Lawyers filed a habeas corpus petition and a temporary restraining order seeking his release, saying the arrest violated Homeland Security policies that bar immigration enforcement at active emergency response locations. Border Patrol said the two were in the country illegally and detained them. The Bear Gulch Fire has burned 29 square miles and is 9% contained.
Read at ABC7 Los Angeles
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