Friday night, a relative sent me a text. That wasn’t unusual. He’s recently discovered texting as a vehicle to rant, and specifically, to rant at me. The context also wasn’t unusual. It was a rant about “fascist Trump.” Trump, he wrote, had sent his stormtroopers to Washington state and they had pulled two, brave firefighters off the front lines of a forest fire. Fascist! He cried – they are pulling firefighters away from fighting fires! What amount of children and puppies will die because of Trump?!
This relative is a card-carrying leftist. I don’t know the source of his Kool-Aid. I could guess. Maybe it’s just ghosts in his head, but he’s not alone. Politicians who know better disseminate nonsense and half-truths to agitate the base. Gavin Newsom has been stumping lately, claiming that Trump will “cancel” the 2026 elections.
After I got the text from my relative (and sighed deeply), I looked up what actually happened. This is from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection news release:
Due to the remote location of the work site, BLM requested USBP assistance verifying the identities of all personnel present. The work crews, totaling 44 individuals, required identity verification to ensure that the individuals on-site matched the contractor rosters.
...
USBP agents supported BLM rangers in verifying the identities of the contracted personnel. Several discrepancies were identified, and two individuals were found to be present in the United States illegally, one with a previous order of removal. The two individuals were arrested and transported to the Bellingham Station on charges of illegal entry and 8 US Code 1326 - Reentry of removed aliens. Forty-two individuals were released from the scene and escorted off Federal lands.
The contract termination and enforcement action did not interfere with firefighting operations or the response to any active fires in the area, nor did it pose any danger to the surrounding community.
Border Patrol had been alerted that those illegal aliens had been hired by an independent, third-party contractor based in Oregon. They were “firefighters” on paper but neither were fighting fires. Border Patrol checked records, and the contractor’s records didn’t match the people on site. Officials found two guys who had entered the US illegally and detained them.
Those two were not out on the fire line stopping a fire. They weren’t saving babies. They weren’t rescuing puppies. They were chopping wood. Those two were detained and transported to a detention center. But legacy media turned the narrative into CBP and ICE pulling heroes away from the front lines. My relative bought that myth, like every myth he’s consumed since Trump was sworn in.
Dem politicians are fond of pouring gas on the fire. They are also fond of lying.
One of the firefighters arrested is an Oregonian. My office has been in touch with his lawyer @thinklawlab who says he can't locate his client. My office is working to get more information on his whereabouts ASAP. https://t.co/JFlTgYjscd
— Ron Wyden (@RonWyden) August 28, 2025
The reality is always hidden by legacy media, usually in the paragraphs at the end of an article or in the lede. The AP reported the story and included a photo of firefighters in the middle of a blaze. For the two detained illegals, that's not remotely what happened.
What is the truth? Time will inform us, but one detained illegal alien had an order of removal. Thus one of the wood-choppers had a pending order of removal, so that leave us, with one. The other guy? Sure, he was brought to the U.S. by his illegal alien parents at the age of four, but why hasn’t he gone through the proper channels to, at least, get some legal status?
His lawyer claims his client is a victim of bureaucracy. He’s a victim:
“Our client submitted a U Visa application in 2018 after he and his family were victims of a federal crime,” he said. “They cooperated with law enforcement in the investigation of that federal crime, and they've been waiting now for over seven years for USCIS to adjudicate that U visa.”
The lawyer won’t tell us if his client got “deferred status.” Why? You can take your own guess, but mine is, 100 percent his client doesn’t have “deferred status.”
The lawyer added some sympathy points- that his client lives in Oregon and graduated from high school.
Ok... so? More Dem pols jumped in. U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas, D-Oregon, District 6 said in a statement:
ICE detained two firefights who were working to stop a wildfire. These people are risking their lives to keep communities safe. How does this make Americans safer? Every day this Administration finds a new way to show how backward and inhumane it is.
No, they weren’t.
Can I tell my relative these “facts”? Of course not. He told me years ago that he didn’t want to hear my “facts.”
Cults are like that.
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