Two US firefighters, arrested by the Immigration Police while extinguishing a fire: “We risk life”

The US Border Patrol agents arrested two firefighters on Wednesday to extinguish the largest vegetation fire in Washington. The arrest has sparked controversy, some Democrats denouncing an “absurd” act and demanding “immediate answers”, AFP reports.

The incident was confirmed by the Customs Office and Border Protection (CBP), who stated that the agents arrested “two persons” who “were in an illegal situation”, during an operation in which they checked the identity of 44 firefighters, according to AFP, cited by Agerpres.

According to Seattle Times, the two arrested firefighters belonged to private companies employed by the authorities to help extinguish Bear Gulch Fire, a forest fire that burns since the beginning of July. The fire has already consumed over 3,600 hectares in the Olympic peninsula in Washington.

“We risked our lives here to save the population and look how they treat us,” said one of the firefighters for the American daily, under the protection of anonymity.

The anti -immigration operation “did not prevent the fire extinguishing operations or the response to the active fires in the region,” BCP said.

The police intervened because the contracts between the federal government and the two companies involved “were terminated following a criminal investigation,” explained the Federal Agency, without providing additional details on suspicions against companies.

Democrats demand “immediate answers”

The intervention was harshly criticized by Democrats in the region on Thursday, who considered it a proof of the excesses of Donald Trump's anti-immigration offensive since his return to the White House.

The Senator of Washington Patty Murray called on the Trump administration on Thursday morning to provide “immediate responses” on the case of the two firefighters detained by the border agents, The Guardian reports.

Trump's immigration policy is “fundamentally disgusting,” Murray said. “Trump has unfairly detained everyone, from legal holders of green books to American citizens – no one should consider this necessary or adequate,” she continued.

“There are no words to describe this cruelty,” added his colleague from the representative room, Pramila Jayapal. “It is absurd and totally contrary to the interests of the United States,” the democratic politician pointed out.

For his part, the democratic governor of Washington, Bob Ferguson, expressed “deep concern” and asked his services “to gather more information about what happened.”