Thread: Immigrant firefighters pose dilemma for West

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Immigrant firefighters pose dilemma for West
Crackdown on illegal workers could scare away needed crews



12:00 AM CDT on Monday, May 29, 2006
The New York Times


SALEM, Ore. – The debate over immigration, which has filtered into almost every corner of American life in recent months, is now sweeping through the woods, and the implications could be immense for the upcoming fire season in the West.

As many as half of the roughly 5,000 private firefighters based in the Pacific Northwest and contracted by state and federal governments to fight forest fires are immigrants, mostly from Mexico. And an untold number of them are working here illegally.

A recent report by the inspector-general for the U.S. Forest Service said illegal immigrants had been fighting fires for several years. The Forest Service said in response that it would work with immigration and customs enforcement officers and the Social Security Administration to improve the process of identifying violators.

At the same time, the state of Oregon, which administers private fire contracts for the Forest Service, imposed tougher rules on companies that employ firefighters, including a requirement that firefighting crew leaders have a working command of English and a formal business location where crew members can assemble.

Some Hispanic contractors say the state and federal changes could cause many immigrants, even those here legally, to stay away from the jobs. Other forestry workers say that firefighting may simply be too important – and that it may be too difficult to attract other applicants – to allow for a crackdown on illegal workers.

"I don't think it's in anybody's interest, including the Forest Service, to enforce immigration – they're benefiting from it," said Blanca Escobeda, owner of 3B's Forestry in Medford, Ore., which fields two 20-person fire crews. Ms. Escobeda said all of her workers were legal.

Some fire company owners estimate that 10 percent of the firefighting crews are illegal immigrants; government officials will not even hazard a guess.

Through the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, the private contract crews can be dispatched anywhere in the country that fires get too big or too numerous for local entities to handle.

The work, which pays $10 to $15 an hour, is among the most demanding and dangerous in the West.

"You've got to be physically able and mentally able," said Javier Orozco, 21, who has fought fires in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, California and Montana since 2002.

The plight of the fire companies underscores the surprising directions that the debate over immigration can lead, like government-required bilingualism to ensure everyone on a fire line can understand one another, while threatening to scare away needed workers.

Serafin Garcia, who came from Mexico as a farm worker in the mid-1980s and started a fire company in Salem in 2001, said the new rules could ruin him. Not only is he likely to lose workers, but some industry officials suggest that larger fire companies, which tend to be owned by non-Hispanics, could crush smaller competitors like Mr. Garcia's firm, using immigration and safety concerns as a smokescreen.

Oregon state fire officials say the rule changes have nothing to do with immigration – nor, they say, is there any effort to shift the business away from Hispanic entrepreneurs.

"It's an unfortunate coincidence," said Bill Lafferty, director of the Protection From Fire Program for Oregon's Department of Forestry. "All we want as a government is a good, productive, safe workforce."

Elva Orozco sees both sides of the debate. Her son, Javier, was born in Oregon and has been a crew leader since 2002. His English is good. Her husband, Jose, who immigrated from Mexico in the 1970s, started their fire crew business in the early 1990s, and sometimes still struggles with the language. She thinks that Jose may not be able to pass the new language requirements. And maybe, she added, that could be for the best. "They've got to be safe," she said.

Other people in the business say that whatever the motivations are for the contract changes, immigrants will be hurt the most. Dillon Sanders, for one, is fine with that.

Mr. Sanders started a fire company last year near Portland, but found himself underbid by minority contractors who he thinks were not following the rules about pay or contracts. He has hired only U.S.-born crews, he said.

"The new system clearly discriminates against minority contractors," Mr. Sanders said, "but that gives me an edge, and I'll take it."

Some Hispanic contractors say the state and federal changes could cause many immigrants, even those here legally, to stay away from the jobs.

Oh Please!

Would it cause them to stay in their own countries?

I'm so sick of Private Contractors who undermine the economy of the USA by employing illegal aliens. Once again, it amounts to rewarding criminal behavior and punishing the law-abiding .

The work, which pays $10 to $15 an hour, is among the most demanding and dangerous in the West.

No wonder why they can't ATTRACT FIREFIGHTERS!

They're making a killing!! You can imagine what they're charging the government. It's close to the oil well fire fighters.

Holy toledo