Two firefighters held at Washington ICE detention center amid wildfire

31/8/2025 12:06

Two firefighters who were responding to a wildfire in the state of Washington when they were detained by U.S. border agents are being held at an ICE detention center in Tacoma, a U.S. congresswoman said on Saturday.



U.S. Rep. Emily Randall, a Democrat who represents the district where the detention center is located and the fire is burning, told Reuters she made an unannounced visit to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility on Saturday.



She said she was not allowed inside, but that officials there confirmed they were holding the two people working for companies that had been contracted to help fight the 9,000-acre Bear Gulch fire in the Olympic National Forest.



Federal officials have not named the two arrested on Wednesday.



Randall said she had been unable to speak to the detained firefighters.



In a letter to U.S. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon on Thursday, lawyer Stephen Manning said his Portland, Oregon, firm was representing one of those arrested, an Oregon resident Manning said was unlawfully detained.