A Song Of ICE And Firefighters: Border Patrol Drags Away Firefighters Working WA Wildfire.
When is the Red Wedding?
The Border Patrol yesterday sent agents to check the immigration papers of firefighting crews who were in the middle of fighting Washington state’s biggest wildfire of the year, hauling off two members of a privately contracted wildland fire crew, the Seattle Times reports (archive link if you’re paywalled out). The paper says it’s “unclear” why the two firefighters were arrested, but we’re betting it wasn’t for trying to smuggle contraband to fire fairies in the depths of the flames, or even worse, to say the words “climate change,” which have nothing to do with wildfires.
In a bizarre bit of doublespeak, a spokesperson for the Incident Management Team managing the Bear Gulch Fire said that the managers were “aware of a Border Patrol operation on the fire,” but that La Migra hadn’t interfered with the wildfire response, heavens no, and please direct any further inquiries to the Border Patrol station in Port Angeles, Washington, which will not reply to them, and neither have ICE or DHS. They don’t have to tell you anything, the press is the enemy.
During the three hours of the definitely not-interfering raid, federal deportation stormtroopers demanded IDs from all the members of two private fire crews, who were part of the roughly 400 personnel fighting the Bear Gulch fire. The fire has been burning since July 6 and has its very own Facebook page. It’s burned some 9,000 acres in the Olympic National Forest, and is only 13 percent contained.
The Seattle Times adds, as if any of this madness were a routine news event, “It is unusual for federal border agents to make arrests during the fighting of an active fire, especially in a remote area.”
Ya fucking think?
Back in the Before Times, in 2021, DHS announced that because of the agency’s quaint, naive focus on keeping people alive during disasters,
Absent exigent circumstances, immigration enforcement will not be conducted at locations where disaster and emergency response and relief is being provided, such as along evacuation routes, sites used for sheltering or the distribution of emergency supplies, food or water, or registration sites for disaster-related assistance or the reunification of families and loved ones.
Can you imagine? No wonder illegals flooded into America like floodwaters but also like vermin, drawn by the chance to cavort along fire-choked evacuation routes at will and to enjoy all the MREs the Red Cross could stuff them with. Everything is much better now, when we’re arresting people before they can put out any wildfires.
The firefighters who spoke to the Seattle Times about the arrests “requested anonymity because they feared retaliation from federal agencies for talking to the media,” demonstrating that hard-earned ability to recognize danger that’s usually only necessary when dealing with actual wilderness blazes, not a democracy going down in flames.
The fire crews were sent yesterday morning to cut wood near Lake Cushman, away from anything burning at least. As they waited for their supervisors to arrive, the feds showed up and demanded the crews line up and show their papers. It is not reported whether the agents literally clicked their heels or shouted “Achtung!” while ordering the firefighters around.
One of the firefighters said members of the crew were told not to take video of the incident.
“You risked your life out here to save the community,” the firefighter said. “This is how they treat us.”
In a FaceTime video call from the other firefighter to The Seattle Times, firefighters in their gear were seen sitting on logs in front of federal officers. Some firefighters were dismissed back to their vehicles.
When one firefighter tried to go to his company truck to get something to drink, he was ordered to get back in line because that’s how secret police are, don’t you question their authority, you punk wilderness firefighter. A convict could do your job for a few dollars a day, you know.
The story refers to a photo that the Seattle Times seems not to have posted anywhere yet, noting that in one image, “Officers wearing ‘Police’ vests are seen arresting a firefighter, while another appears to be restrained.”
And yes, the Border Patrol agents were assholes to the firefighters whose papers were in order, because really we’re all criminals or suspects, and we all need to be kept in line.
When one firefighter asked to at least have a moment to say goodbye to their detained colleagues, the stormtrooper let him know who’s boss, and who must obey:
“I asked them if his (family) can say goodbye to him because they’re family, and they’re just ripping them away,” the firefighter told the Times. “And this is what he said: ‘You need to get the fuck [expletive restored by Wonkette] out of here. I’m gonna make you leave.'”
We have no doubt that Kristi Noem will demand the arrest or at least the firing of the rogue firefighter, because he interfered with her agents and acted as if the ILLEGAL CRIMINAL ALIENS were his “friends” or something. She may even go on Fox so she can make little finger guns and inform the treasonous firefighter he’s lucky his defiance wasn’t met with the force it deserves.
In not-unrelated news, The Hotshot Wake Up, a blog covering firefighting crews, notes that Sen. Rick Scott (R-Florida) and Hollywood producer and C-list actor Spencer Pratt are demanding an audit of how California wildfire funds have been spent for the last decade, because what if some of it can be called woke, and why didn’t Karen Bass rake the canyons to stop the LA fires driven by 100-mph winds?
In conclusion, these damn firefighters better watch their step or Donald Trump will have to waste a few billion gallons of water from an irrigation dam hundreds of miles from the fire to make a point.
[Seattle Times (archive link) / Hotshot Wake Up]
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Anyone who thought we could never find guys willing to commit extrajudicial killings or run concentration camps where they gas women and children and send them up the chimney? I present this story as a counter argument. These are angry, immoral, stupid, selfish people given power. You don’t need too many of them to make it happen. You think it’s just that one guy in the group that’s over the top? Nah, he’s probably the leader and the other guys envy him and want to be him.
I swear if I get arrested in the next three and a half years it'll be because some shit like this went on in front of me and I couldn't just sit there and watch. And it will have been worth it, I can promise that already. Fuck this fascist bullshit.