This was a disturbing piece of news that was brought to my attention. I’m betting it goes much further than the story I’m about to tell you. It’s out of control. It’s ridiculous. And it’s frightening if you follow out the thought of what’s being done. From The Washington Post:
On Wednesday, as helicopters were still dousing the flames of the 9,000-acre Bear Gulch fire, federal officials drove up in SUVs, checked IDs, then escorted 44 of those firefighters off the premises, arresting two of them on charges of illegally entering the country. “We got hit by ICE,” a voice says in one of the videos of the episode posted to social media.
44 firefighters. Sure, some of them were doing support work at the time, but FOURTY-FOUR. They lost that many people on a Nazi style raid because of ICE. This is a raging fire they are trying to corral. Now, at this time, the group was on their last day, and another crew would be coming in. So they were addressing some small pockets of the blaze and doing some support work for the people. They were also doing things to HELP PEOPLE.
The immigration raid by Border Patrol agents on an active fire scene shocked many veteran wildland firefighters. Several of them said they could not remember a similar episode happening in the past. And some worried that such enforcement efforts would distract firefighters working in strenuous environments and have a chilling effect on a workforce that relies heavily on immigrant labor. “Firefighting is a difficult, dangerous job, and firefighters need to keep their focus on the fire,” said Dale Bosworth, a former chief of the U.S. Forest Service. “We don’t need to have those kinds of distractions. It’s dangerous.”
No kidding. Of course it is! Wildfires are difficult to get under control. They need all hands on deck, not “almost on deck”, because ICE might show up and take them away. Firefighters. People risk their lives to protect other people. But ICE says Oh no, too bad, we’re taking them from you. The result is a smaller workforce and overworked fighters. That has the potential to lead to bad things, one of which is getting caught in the fire themselves. And it will take longer to control the fire with fewer people available.
Rosario P. Vasquez, chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s Blaine sector, said in the statement that the agency was focused on ensuring that companies were complying with the law. “U. S. Border Patrol steadfastly enforces the laws of the United States and unapologetically addresses violations of immigration law wherever they are encountered,” Vasquez said. Patrol agents arrived at the request of the Bureau of Land Management following a criminal investigation, according to a statement by the Department of Homeland Security. The episode outraged many in the Northwest, from firefighters to public officials.
And there ya have it. ICE doesn’t care what they’re doing. They’re just arresting people who have the slightest chance of being illegal. They have a quota, after all. And if they do this even to firefighters, what other much-needed groups are they pulling from? We know they’re pulling from farmers who are then losing half their crops, or meatpacking plants, where they don’t have enough people, so the prices are skyrocketing. It’s no wonder food is becoming more expensive. Back to firefighters for a moment. Fewer people to fight fires means longer to put them out. And what if they burn out of control?
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I wonder if anyone from DHS, and ICE specifically has a home near that fire? Or might in the future see their home threatened by a wildfire in any state where they are common and LOSE their effing house because not enough firefirefighters are available to respond?
“Rosario P. Vasquez, chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol’s Blaine sector, . . . .”
Hmm. Maybe someone should check the legal status of this “Rosario P. Vasquez.” Sounds pretty “Mexigautesalvacubarican” to me. I wonder if this “chief patrol agent” might be hiding some “illegals” and gets to keep them as long as they do the gummint’s dirty work.