By Alex Brown, Stateline.org

Wildland firefighters were stunned when federal immigration authorities last week raided an active wildfire response in Washington state, arresting two firefighters and sidelining crews for hours.

Wildfire veterans say the operation was nearly unprecedented, a breach in longstanding protocol that federal agents don’t disrupt emergency responders to check immigration status.

Worse, many wildfire veterans believe the management team overseeing the fire crews played a key role in handing over the firefighters to immigration authorities.

Stateline spoke to nearly a dozen firefighters, agency staffers and contractors familiar with the incident, who shared their belief that the top officials assigned to the fire deployed the crews to a remote location under false pretenses so federal agents could check their immigration status. Most of them spoke privately for fear of retaliation.

The raid has reverberated among fire crews, agency leaders and contractors. Wildfire veterans say the arrests have stoked fear and distrust among firefighters on the ground. They worry that crews may be scared to deploy if they may become a target for immigration raids.

“There’s really no way [the wildfire management team] could not have been involved,” said Riva Duncan, a former wildland fire chief who served more than 30 years with the U.S. Forest Service. “We’re all talking about it. People are wondering if they go on a fire with this team, if that could happen to them.”

Since the incident became public, the wildfire world has been abuzz with anger at that team — California Interagency Incident Management Team 7. Made up of federal, state and local fire professionals, the team was assigned to oversee the response to the Bear Gulch fire, which has burned 9,000 acres in and around Olympic National Park in Washington state.

One firefighter who was present at the raid said he is convinced that Team 7 leaders sent their crews into a trap.

“I felt beyond betrayed,” said the firefighter, who requested anonymity to protect his career. “What they did was messed up. They’d been talking in their briefings about building relationships and trust. For them to say that and then go do this is mind-boggling. It boiled my blood.”

Team 7 Incident Commander Tom Clemo, in an email, declined to comment, citing an active investigation. Tom Stokesberry, the team’s public information officer, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

According to daily Incident Action Plans filed by Team 7 and posted online, the crews had previously been digging holding lines, working to protect structures and conducting mop-up work. The two crews targeted by federal agents had not been assigned to work together in the days leading up to the raid.

Then, on Aug. 27, both crews — workers from private companies contracted to help fight the fire — were told to deploy to a staging area where they would cut firewood for the local community. The firefighter who was present at the raid told Stateline that a division supervisor told the crews he would meet them at the site, but never showed up.

After arriving at the site, the firefighter said, the crews found piles of logs, seemingly from a timber operation. Not wanting to damage a logging company’s property, they waited for a management team leader to show up with further instructions.

After an hour, unmarked law enforcement vehicles pulled up to the site and federal officials began questioning the firefighters. Duncan, the former Forest Service firefighter, said immigration agents would not have been able to access the site without help from Team 7 leaders.

“Fire areas are officially closed, very secure and there are roadblocks,” she said. “Somebody would have had to tell these agents how to get there.”

In a news release, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said its agents assisted with an investigation led by the federal Bureau of Land Management. While the agency’s release did not mention the nature of the investigation, multiple wildfire sources said the feds claimed they had uncovered fraud on time cards submitted by the crews.

Table Rock Forestry Inc., an Oregon-based company whose crew was one of the two at the scene, was allegedly subjected to the raid due to a half-hour discrepancy on a time sheet, said Scott Polhamus, secretary of the Organization of Fire Contractors and Affiliates. Table Rock Forestry is a member of the fire contractors’ group.

Multiple wildfire veterans said that time card discrepancies are not uncommon at wildfires, where crews work long days and it’s not always clear if lunch breaks or errands in town count toward working hours. Such mix-ups are typically sorted out between organizational leaders. Calling law enforcement in such a scenario is almost unheard of.

“This is not the first time a crew has been called on the carpet for maybe padding their time a bit,” Duncan said. “You deal directly with the company. It’s just absolutely mind-boggling to treat it as a criminal issue.”

After about five minutes discussing the time card issue, according to the firefighter who was present at the raid, federal agents spent the next three hours checking each firefighter’s immigration status.

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The Customs and Border Protection news release announcing the immigration arrests made no mention of time sheets or any evidence that the investigation had turned up fraud. It did state that the two companies whose crews were raided had their contracts terminated by the government.

Polhamus, with the fire contractors’ group, said that claim is false. While the crews were demobilized and sent home, the feds have not actually ended the companies’ contracts or ability to accept future deployments.

A Customs and Border Protection public affairs specialist did not immediately respond to questions about the investigation, the alleged fraud or federal agents’ coordination with Team 7.

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources, the state’s lead wildfire response agency, said federal officials did not notify their state counterparts about the investigation.

“DNR was not informed of the incident until well after the fact,” said Ryan Rodruck, wildfire on-call public information officer with the agency.

Rodruck noted that the fire response was under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Forest Service. Press officers with the Forest Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Multiple wildfire sources said the crews would not have been sent to the staging area where they were ambushed without the knowledge of top leaders on the fire’s management team.

The two crews that were raided have a diverse mix of firefighters, many of them Hispanic. One of the crews has many foreign workers who are legally in the country on H-2B visas. Duncan, the former Forest Service firefighter, said it was likely not a coincidence that two crews with many brown-skinned members were targeted in the raid.

Two of the firefighters were arrested, federal officials said, for being in the country illegally.

One of the firefighters who was arrested is represented by Innovation Law Lab, an Oregon-based legal group that defends refugees and immigrants. Isa Peña, the group’s director of strategy, said the Department of Homeland Security has not revealed the whereabouts of their client.

The firefighter, who Peña declined to name, has been in the U.S. since he was four years old and served as a firefighter for the past three years. Immigration advocates are alarmed that the raid was potentially arranged by California Interagency Incident Management Team 7, the leaders charged with overseeing the wildfire response.

“There certainly is concern if that is the case that individuals are being handed over to immigration as they’re trying to keep our communities safe,” Peña said. “Conducting immigration enforcement while brave members of our community are risking their lives to protect us is really disgusting.”

Several wildland fire veterans also noted that the raid took place on Team 7’s final day in charge of the fire response, hours before a Washington team rotated in to take command. The California team headed home and left the new team to face the media scrutiny and angry firefighters in camp.

“If you’ve got ICE teams pulling your contractors out, you’d want to cut and run as soon as you can,” Polhamus said.

On a forum for wildland fire professionals on the social media platform Reddit, many expressed anger at Team 7. Firefighters also took issue with the assertion, shared by federal immigration officials, that the raid did not disrupt firefighting operations.

“It’s total bulls***,” said Duncan, the former Forest Service firefighter. “Whoever made that statement doesn’t understand the work. To take two crews off of a fire that’s only 13% contained, that seems ridiculous at that point in a fire. That does seem very unusual.”

Many wildfire veterans said that conducting a raid at the site of an active wildfire was reckless and irresponsible.

“Having people on the line that you don’t expect to be there is an issue,” said Polhamus, with the fire contractors’ group. “When you need crews and you are taking resources to check them for immigration status, we can all think of better ways to address that.”

Duncan said she’s spoken with firefighters still assigned to the Bear Gulch fire who are disgusted with the situation and want to leave.

“The three principal wildland fire values are duty, respect, integrity,” she said. “Utmost in that is taking care of your people. If you can’t trust the people you’re working with when things get hairy, that’s a concern.”

In Washington and Oregon, elected leaders have decried the raids and are pushing for more information on the status of the firefighters who were arrested. Federal immigration officials have said little since the news release announcing the arrests.

Stateline reporter Alex Brown can be reached at abrown@stateline.org

©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

National Blood Donor Day is Sept. 4. If you ever wanted to do something to help people, but didn’t have money to donate or time to volunteer, giving blood is another way to give back that can potentially save a life — maybe even more than one.

In 2025, giving blood is less painful and more inclusive than you might remember.

More members of the LGBTQ+ community are now welcome to donate blood after the U.S. Federal Drug Administration updated blood donation guidelines in 2023. And just this year, the oft-dreaded finger stick was replaced with a sensor slipped on to a finger to measure a donor’s hemoglobin, the protein in blood that carries oxygen.

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Want to know your blood type? A donation will reveal that information. And the Red Cross now provides free A1C testing, which is used to screen for diabetes and prediabetes.

“One in 10 people in our country have diabetes but nearly a quarter are undiagnosed — and some 80% of those living with prediabetes are also unaware of having it,” Doreen Thomann-Howe, CEO for the American Red Cross in Greater New York, said in a statement. “When offering A1C screening previously in March, we found that over half of donors were unaware of their own A1C levels.”

There’s no substitute for blood, and research continues into the production of artificial blood. Anyone in medical need can benefit from donated blood, from a cancer patient, to an accident victim, to someone undergoing surgery.

“The need for blood is constant, and every two seconds someone in the United States needs blood. Although about 62% of the U.S. population is eligible to give blood, only about 3% donate,” Thomann-Howe said. “A single blood donation can help save more than one life.”

Blood donations plummeted during the pandemic, which is when I started regularly donating blood. I am a two-gallon blood donor with the American Red Cross, which means I have donated blood at least 16 times over my lifetime and have two pins to show for it.

A pin for every gallon of blood I’ve donated to the American Red Cross. (photo by Darleene Powells)

Interested in donating? There are a few things to know before you show up at a blood drive.

Connect

The American Red Cross has a website and a smartphone app, where you can make an appointment at your nearest blood drive site, see where your donated blood goes, and keep track of your past donations. I always make an appointment to donate blood, but other organizations like hospitals may allow walk-ins at their blood drives.

Prepare

The website and app will also be where you complete the RapidPass, a health screening questionnaire, prior to your appointment.

The day before your appointment, drink plenty of water and get a good night’s rest. Avoid rushing to your appointment — I was once in such a hurry, my blood pressure was too high to donate. Remember to bring photo identification.

Feel good

The American Red Cross provides both salty and sweet snacks, water and juices for donors after they give blood. (photo by Darleene Powells)

After your donation, the Red Cross provides snacks, water and juice to help you replenish your fluids. Take advantage of the refreshments and make sure to take it easy after your donation. I’ve also been admonished not to skip any meals after giving blood.

And don’t forget to feel good about your good deed. You may have helped save a life.

A 14-year-old student was found with a gun during the first day of the school year at a St. Paul high school Tuesday, according to police.

Police were called to Johnson Senior High School on Arcade Street at 9:30 a.m.

The school received a tip that a student may have brought a weapon to school, Principal Jamil Payton wrote in an email that will be sent to parents Tuesday.

“During a staff search conducted by one of our assistant principals, interventionist, and school support liaison (SSL), a gun was found,” he wrote. “No one was injured.”

Police responded to the school, and found staff had the teen and the firearm secured, said Alyssa Arcand, a St. Paul police spokeswoman. The handgun was unloaded when police recovered it.

Officers booked the teen into the Ramsey County Juvenile Detention Center.

“I understand this news can be extremely upsetting, especially on the first day of school,” Payton wrote. “At the same time, I want to call out that our safety protocols worked as intended.”

An investigation is underway, according to Arcand.

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“We absolutely should weed out exploitative landlords, but we also need policies that support responsible owners. Otherwise, small landlords give up, banks take over, and buildings end up owned by large corporations.”

Apartment buildings near Carroll Place and East 165th street in the Bronx. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

Lately it seems like “landlord” has become a dirty word in New York City, and all of us, good and bad alike, are being painted with the same broad, hostile brush. I’m a Democrat living in Manhattan, and my husband and I have always believed in fair housing, treating tenants with dignity, and keeping the city vibrant.

Yes, some landlords are greedy and irresponsible. But when policies lump all landlords together, they punish small, community-focused owners like us alongside the worst actors. We need a new approach, one that balances tenant rights while driving landlords to maintain responsible practices.

We don’t own fair-market apartments. We manage 100 units across two buildings in the Bronx, all of which are rent stabilized or occupied by Section 8 tenants. That means we already operate under strict rent restrictions and oversight. New York’s “Good Cause Eviction” law doesn’t directly impact our business, but the mindset behind these sweeping policies is spreading, and it’s setting up the entire housing market for worse outcomes.

People think landlords love to evict tenants. We don’t. Eviction is a nightmare; it means months, often over a year, of paying legal fees and going to court, all while the tenant remains in the apartment without paying rent. Even after court approval, we often wait months for a marshal to enforce it. During that time, we still pay taxes, utilities, insurance, and the mortgage.

From 2014 to 2021, the average annual rent increase for our regulated units was around 1 percent, while operating costs climbed steadily. That left us in a fragile position when COVID hit: tenants stopped paying rent, eviction moratoriums prevented enforcement, and the court backlog meant cases dragged out even longer.

We’re still digging out: the 2025 Rent Guidelines Board study showed Bronx landlords’ net operating income rose only 0.8 percent, far below citywide averages. At the same time, the city keeps layering on good, but costly mandates—we recently replaced an elevator to meet inspection rules and are now making critical roof repairs.

We want to invest more. We often modernize kitchens and bathrooms for long-term tenants, and we’d love to improve common areas and energy efficiency, not just because it’s good business, but because we believe, as Matthew Desmond wrote in “Evicted”: “a stable and decent home is said to be a fundamental requirement for individuals and families to thrive.” Landlords shape communities and support livelihoods in ways often overlooked, by tenants, policymakers, and even landlords themselves.

But how are we supposed to make these improvements if we can’t recover the costs? The nominal rent increases and lengthy eviction process drain time and resources that could otherwise go toward building upkeep. This lack of incentive creates an environment where mediocrity becomes the default, not because landlords don’t care, but because they’re stuck.

That’s where the cascade happens. If fair market landlords see the same constraints coming their way, they won’t invest in their properties. We absolutely should weed out exploitative landlords, but we also need policies that support responsible owners. Otherwise, small landlords give up, banks take over, and buildings end up owned by large corporations. Then everyone wonders where the community-based landlords went and why the sense of community disappeared with them. 

Government ownership isn’t the answer either. Bureaucracies are often impersonal and inefficient. Yes, there’s an inherent tension in a capitalist system where landlords profit from a basic need like housing. But that doesn’t mean the solution is to make it unprofitable. Guardrails should prevent abuse, but they also must allow landlords to run sustainable, successful businesses.

As a Democrat who believes deeply in affordable housing, I’m worried. Housing quality doesn’t improve through punishment alone. It improves when governing policies create the incentives and means for landlords to reinvest. We need to understand why tenants fall behind, offer small but meaningful incentives for maintenance and upgrades, and streamline the eviction process without sacrificing fairness.

Housing policy can’t be one-sided, that’s lazy and shortsighted. It’s not enough to squeeze landlords and hope they do the right thing while their finances collapse. If we keep ignoring these realities, we’ll end up with exactly what we say we don’t want—deteriorating buildings owned by institutions, not neighbors.

I urge our city’s leaders to look at the housing crisis from all sides, not just from the angle that earns applause or political points. Lasting solutions will only come when we acknowledge the challenges facing both tenants and the small landlords who house them.

Kelly Feili lives in New York City and works in cybersecurity, where she has spent much of her career focused on public policy. Her family owns and manages two rent-stabilized buildings in New York City. This is her first op-ed on housing policy, a topic she has grown passionate about through personal experience. 

The post Opinion: NYC Needs More Than Tenant Protections—It Needs a Balanced Approach to Housing appeared first on City Limits.