Overview
- José Bertín Cruz-Estrada was taken into federal custody in August during an identity check at a Washington wildfire where he says he was actively fighting the blaze.
- Two Latino crew members were detained; one was released after about a month, while Cruz-Estrada remained in custody until his late-October deportation to Mexico.
- From a Mexican border town, he says he felt betrayed and maintains he was performing authorized firefighting work when agents intervened.
- DHS publicly highlighted his 2013 guilty plea tied to methamphetamine distribution and said Border Patrol had 15 prior encounters with him.
- A DHS spokeswoman asserted the detainees were not firefighters or responding to an emergency, and the Washington governor sought explanations following public attention.