The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has responded to recent media reports about the arrest of two individuals by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), clarifying that those arrested were not firefighters, as some outlets reported, but criminal illegal aliens with prior charges.
According to DHS, one of the individuals, Jose Bertin Cruz-Estrada from Mexico, had previous charges related to the delivery and sale of methamphetamine. He had been encountered by Border Patrol 15 times before and was subject to a final order of removal in April 2015. He was last removed from the United States on February 27, 2016, but re-entered illegally.
The second individual arrested had prior charges for illegally carrying a concealed weapon.
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated: “The two illegal aliens apprehended were not ‘firefighters’ as the media claimed, nor were they responding to any active emergency—in fact they were CRIMINAL illegal aliens. Both had prior arrests.One for drug trafficking and one for illegally carrying a firearm. Once again, the media ran with a false narrative and left out the key details. When will the media stop peddling these false new stories to demonize our law enforcement?”
DHS further clarified that neither of the two individuals was assigned to fight fires directly; instead, they were part of contracted work crews present in a support capacity, specifically cutting logs into firewood. The department emphasized that no active firefighters were questioned during the incident and that Border Patrol’s actions did not interfere with ongoing firefighting operations.
