Fire and ICE: A Close Look at the Narratives that Emerge When Immigration Enforcement and Disaster Relief Collide

On August 27, 2025, Rigoberto Hernandez and Jose Estrada, two firefighters working to stop the spread of the Bear Gulch Fire, were pulled from their teams and detained by ICE agents. Raging since July 6th, the Bear Gulch Fire was the largest wild fire in the Olympic Peninsula since the Great Forks Fire of 1951. The fire had caused catastrophic damage to the region, burning over 20,000 acres before fully being contained. 

As the unwarranted and cruel practice of immigrant detention occurred during the most unlikely of times – an actual on-going public emergency – Narrative Initiative’s research team decided to take a focused look at online narratives surrounding the events. This analysis is part of Narrative Initiative’s ongoing work to provide actionable, rapid response research for narrative interventions on climate migration and workers.

The analysis focused on data from 104 pieces of relevant media (which were identified through unique keyword searches on Google, Facebook, TikTok, Threads, Reddit, and X (Twitter) produced between August 25, 2025 and October 10, 2025. A range of voices, audiences, and ideological perspectives were included.

(This analysis does not include audience sentiment using a traditional -1/0/+1 sentiment score, insights about how this story performed in different markets, or numerical data indicating the full reach of this story.)

“This was never about public safety, because if it was, then why would our federal government arrest someone who was sacrificing so much to protect our country?”

— Arianna Avena, SEIU Local 503 (The Oregonian 2025)

The detention of firefighters is one flashpoint in which competing narratives of national identity intersect with ideas about belonging, safety, and civic service. Our research illuminated two thematic buckets: (1) narratives of identity and worth, and (2) narratives of disempowerment and oppression.

Identity Building – Positive

The roles, character, motivations, and worth of firefighters and federal agents in different ways depending on the media type, audience, and voice. Positive and negative identity building plays a key role in this story.

“[ICE] is targeting people on the front lines working to keep our community safe.” 

— Matt Adams, Northwest Immigration Rights Project (Lake Oswego Review, local)

Identity Building – Negative

“[ICE is] stopping operations to play Gestapo…spineless clowns.”

— Reddit User (r/Wildfire)

“[Democrats] are falsely claiming that ICE agents arrested a pair of “firefighters” in the sanctuary state of Washington. In actuality, [they are] illegal aliens with past criminal records.”

— John Binder (Breitbart, opinion)

Public Service

A clear narrative thread on the nature and purpose of public service emerged. While the firefighters are linked to service to communities and public safety (i.e. putting their lives on the line), government officials are viewed as in the service of law and order (i.e. weaponizing the law and so-called ‘government efficiency’ to justify extreme immigration enforcement.)

“Firefighting is much more than a job…it is a calling to me. I consider it my duty. It has given me clarity in how I think and how I want to act and be in the world. I want to be able to continue to protect the land, the wildlife, and the people of this country.”

— Rigoberto Hernandez, Court Declaration (KGW-8, local)

The ‘Good’ Immigrant

Themes of deservingness appeared in the sample, pivoting around the trope of the ‘good’ immigrant who ‘deserves’ to be in the U.S. The public discourse surrounding both Rigoberto Hernandez and Jose Estrada’s differing histories with the criminal justice system brought the deservingness narrative into sharp relief.

“[Hernandez] entered the US in 2006 when he was [4]. He’s been here for nearly 20 years. He graduated high school, Oregon is his home. He’s bravely been fighting fires for nearly three years now…protecting homes, communities, and resources,”…“He has only one low-level criminal conviction on his record.”

— Rodrigo Fernandez, Hernandez’s attorney (KATU, ABC7, The Oregonian, state and local)

“Jose Cruz Estrada [is] an illegal immigrant with a decade-old order of removal, a drug trafficking conviction, and charges of lying about being a U.S. citizen. [He] is not the poster child for sympathy. He’s exactly the kind of dangerous criminal alien ICE is supposed to remove.”

— Jason Rantz (Seattle Red 770AM, local)

Dehumanization

Language used to describe immigrant firefighters and immigration enforcement agents reflects a pattern of dehumanization across ideological lines.

“[Hernandez] sat on a log, handcuffed, as surrounding agents started guessing where he was from and one likened him to a “stray cat.””

— The Oregonian (state)

“[Firefighters] stated federal agents blocked [their] egress from the staging area, divided them up, and were “whistling at them like they were dogs.””

— FireEngineering.com (blog)

“[Hernandez] is a hero, fighting fires, protecting our communities. Unlike these gestapo pigs, who provide nothing but hatred and terror.”

— Reddit User (r/Oregon)

Abuse of Power

We observed examples of abuse of power and resources carried out by the Trump administration in its targeted and terroristic assault of immigrants. Relevant threads relate to cruelty, rights violations, and exploitation by the current government.“

“They stopped him without reasonable suspicion, arrested him without probable case, ignored the laws governing warrantless arrests, arrested him in the midst of a natural disaster despite his pending U Visa application, denied him calls to counsel, and detained him for two weeks without considering him for release or even indicating what law authorized his detention.”

— Hernandez’s legal team (The Oregonian, state)

“They’re out there in the middle of a disaster zone randomly targeting firefighters. It’s just this message of [a] war on immigrants.”

— Matt Adams, Northwest Immigration Rights Project (Kentucky Lantern, state)

Although the story at the center of this analysis pertains to two migrant firefighters, the broader questions it raises are important for all of us – namely the politicization of disaster relief, militarization of federal emergency management and mass detention and deportation of citizens and non-citizens to name just a few.

The analysis surfaced several narrative challenges and opportunities. Here are a few points to consider.

Narrative Challenges

News, social, and other media discourse surrounding this highly politicized
detention of migrant emergency responders is fueled by storytelling.

• Stories told about the firefighters and ICE agents called on values of safety, service, and trust. Audiences interpret shared story elements differently and arrive at conflicting conclusions about what is just.

Legal status is deeply tied to deservingness.

• Dehumanizing language about immigrants helps reinforce harmful ideas about what immigrants deserve when it comes to things like safety and due process.

Immigration enforcement is being used as a tool of national identity building.

• The Trump administration’s “America First” stance on immigration reinforces long-standing ‘us’ versus ‘them’ dynamics and perpetuates exclusionary notions of what makes someone a ‘real American.’

Narrative Opportunities

Tell stories that frame immigrants as fellow community members and neighbors.

• Avoid reinforcing harmful narratives that ‘other’ immigrants or rely on the ‘good immigrant’ trope. Lift up aspects of immigrants’ lived experiences that speak to shared humanity and stakes (e.g., firefighters being denied the chance to say goodbye to their work crews).

Amplify immigrants’ stories to name abuses of power, and to shift negative perceptions.

• Stories like that of Hernandez’s lawsuit against CBP can help shift public focus away from the alleged criminality of immigrants and toward immigrants’ rights, worth, and resilience.

Brand community safety as something that comes from within rather than without.

• Extreme immigration enforcement efforts threaten and disrupt communities’ abilities to ensure public safety. Immigration enforcement is not a public good, and ICE agents are not ‘defenders of America.’ Engaged community members and neighbors keep communities safe.

The story of Rigoberto Hernandez and Jose Estrada can also be considered within the broader context of federal emergency management. The Trump administration’s immigration enforcement agenda includes framing immigration as a national emergency and instructing funds formerly designated for environmental disaster relief to instead be spent on state-wide management of extreme immigration enforcement (see FEMA’s $608M payment to the state of Florida for “Alligator Alcatraz” and other facilities). Rather than dedicating US taxpayer dollars to community wellbeing, relief, and recovery in the wake of disaster, the Trump administration has reallocated taxpayers’ money to fund punishment, detention, and deportation schemes at any cost.

Check out the ICE Detention of Migrant Firefighters: Narrative Landscape Analysis in full here.