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 Enforcement free him from detention.

“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, but a judge hadn’t ruled on that petition as of Wednesday morning.

Hernandez, who grew up in the U.S. and currently lives in Keizer, 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.

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, one of the firms representing Hernandez. “These reckless arrests are designed to frighten people and keep us from coming together in support of our neighbors, family, friends and coworkers.”

This story may be updated.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2025/09/24/firefighter-border-patrol-washington-released-ice/