ICE releases Oregon firefighter arrested last month during Bear Gulch Fire

Troy Brynelson/OPB

September 24, 2025 / 11:37 am

An Oregon firefighter who was arrested by immigration agents while battling a wildfire last month has been released and is back home, his attorneys announced Wednesday.

Rigoberto Hernandez Hernandez, 23, said he is glad to be back home after multiple Border Patrol agents appeared at a work camp at the Bear Gulch Fire in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula on Aug. 27. Those agents then arrested Hernandez and another firefighter.

Although Hernandez’s legal team had been pressing his case in federal court for weeks, the release surprisingly came without an order from a judge. Instead, it came mere days after his attorneys demanded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforceme

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