Firefighters wait to board a crew helicopter while working the Bear Gulch Fire on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula in this provided image from August 2025.
Image via Inciweb
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 lawyers demanded U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement free him.
“I’m glad that I am home and I am excited to see my family,” Hernandez said in a statement. “So many people stepped up to help, and now I want to help others just like they helped me.”
Attorneys had filed a habeas corpus petition demanding Hernandez’s release in federal court last week. While a judge hadn’t ruled on that petition, attorneys for the U.S. government on Tuesday filed to dismiss the case. There had been no rulings as of Wednesday.
Related: Attorneys press for release of Oregon firefighter detained by federal immigration officials
ICE officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
The about-face came as a shock to the groups who worked on Hernandez’s case.
“This is unusual in this administration,” said Jordan Cunnings, legal director for Innovation Law Lab. “We tend to see them doubling down on their unlawful actions and going even more aggressive.”
Hernandez, who grew up in the U.S. and currently lives in Keizer, had applied for U-visas with his family. The visas grant temporary legal status to non-Americans who are victims of serious crimes.
Hernandez was in his third year working as a wildland firefighter. The Bear Gulch Fire had spread to more than 9,000 acres and was barely contained when the agents appeared at the work camp.
Related: Firefighter from Oregon detained by Border Patrol while fighting wildfire
According to Cunnings, video footage of the encounter showed the immigration agents lined up firefighters to ask them questions. Hernandez presented his firefighter identification card to them. When they asked Hernandez about his citizenship, he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights.
“Rigoberto was arrested solely because of his race and because he asserted his constitutional rights,” Cunnings said. “That’s patently unlawful.”
“The officers were joking about him based on his skin color,” Cunning added. “‘Oh he looks like he might be this, he looks like he might be from this place’ while he was handcuffed. The whole thing just really turns your stomach.”
Two private firefighting firms had their contracts with the federal government canceled shortly after the arrests as well. The firms — Table Rock Forestry and ASI Arden Solutions Inc. — are both based in Oregon.
The arrests caused outcry from the public and from federal officials from both states. Oregon’s senior Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democrat, took to social media to call it an “evil stunt” by the Trump administration.
“Pulling firefighters off active lines isn’t about safety,” said Isa Pena, of Innovation Law Lab. “These reckless arrests are designed to frighten people and keep us from coming together in support of our neighbors, family, friends and coworkers.”
While ICE did not respond to questions about the arrests specifically, they said at the time that “they did not interfere with firefighting operations or the response to any active fires in the area.”
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