An Oregon wildland firefighter who was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents while working on a fire in Washington state has been released after nearly a month in a federal immigration detention center.

Rigoberto Hernandez Hernandez, 23, got out of the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma on Tuesday.

His release came days after his lawyers filed a petition demanding his immediate release and on the same day the government was ordered to file its response in court. Government attorneys instead informed the court it was dropping the deportation case against Hernandez.

“I think it’s clear it’s really difficult to defend this particular arrest,” said Matt Adams of the Seattle-based Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, which filed the petition in federal court demanding Hernandez’s r

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