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PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — More than a week after two firefighters working on the Bear Gulch Fire in Washington were arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, a Pacific Northwest lawmaker is calling out the Trump Administration for what she is calling “unconstitutional treatment.”
U.S. Rep. Andreas Salinas (D-OR) said one of the firefighters arrested lived in Keizer, Oregon and is one of her constituents. Following his arrest on August 27, the man’s lawyers said he went missing for two days, as federal authorities allegedly refused to divulge information about his whereabouts. Earlier this week, the lawyers at Innovation Law Lab later said they finally found out their client’s location, and that he’d been moved to a Tacoma, Washington facility.
On Thursday, Salinas took to the House Floor to call out the treatment of her constituent, one of two wildland firefighters arrests that coincided with the termination of Bureau of Land Management contracts with two Oregon-based companies.
“Mister Speaker, I rise to call out the Trump Administration for their arrest and unconstitutional treatment of my constituent,” Salinas said. “Last week, my constituent was working as a wildland firefighter to combat the Bear Gulch Fire when CBP stopped his crew and arrested him.”
Salinas said the man had been brought to the U.S. at four years old, and it is the only country he has known as home for multiple decades. The man’s lawyers have also said he was on track to legal status when he was arrested.
“For the past three years, he has bravely served as a wildland firefighter, putting his life on the line to protect us. Arresting a firefighter — who is actively fighting a wildfire — does not make our communities safer.”
Salinas said for the two-day period during which the man’s lawyers could not locate him, his constitutional rights were violated, and he was allegedly denied a phone call to his attorneys.
“Let me be clear. Immigrants deserve to be treated with dignity. The Constitution deserves to be followed. Communities deserve safety from wildfires, and first responders deserve to do their job unimpeded. Anything less is a slap in the face to the values we share as Americans,” Salinas said.
Innovation Law Lab Attorney Rodrigo Fernandez-Ortega told KOIN 6 News that even after his client’s location was finally revealed to them, it’s still been a struggle to be in touch with him. He said that whenever they were able to connect, the call was too rushed to provide adequate support.
On Friday, a senior Department of Homeland Security official said in a statement to the Associated Press that the two arrests “did not prevent or interfere with any personnel actively engaged in firefighting efforts.”
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Danny Peterson
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