Exclusive: Border patrol arrested José Bertin Cruz-Estrada while he was battling a wildfire in Washington. He is now in Mexico, separated from his family in Oregon
José Bertin Cruz-Estrada was responding to a wildfire in Washington state on 27 August when four unmarked vehicles drove up to his crew’s remote location in a national forest.
Cruz-Estrada, part of a team of 20 Oregon-based firefighters, had spent a week hiking through dense terrain, battling smoke and clearing fallen trees and other debris to prevent the Bear Gulch fire, a 9,000-acre blaze, from growing. That morning, they were waiting for a taskforce leader to provide instructions, but Cruz-Estrada quickly realized the men arriving in trucks were not emergency responders.
They were US border patrol agents.
I can’t think of a better encapsulation of how insanely stupid and wasteful this whole witch hunt is than Jóse’s story. This man was risking his life to help save American lives and the border patrol comes in and whisks him away from that job in a bizarre and cruel waste of resources. Fucking idiots.
Seriously, kidnap him after his shift helping people, not during. Seems like common sense.
That would have been even more callous. We’re talking about a human being here.
This is despicable, utterly despicable.
Useless cosplaying gravy seals kidnap and deport contributing member of society. Insanity.
Back at the end of WW2, the SS was actively diverting trains that were resupplying regular troops in order to get more Jews to the concentration camps.
I have no idea why I was reminded of that…
Man is doing a critical job, and seems to be a net positive for the community. He should be on a fast track to citizenship.
Can’t have the democrat states get help with wild fires. Seems like they found a two birds one stone situation.
