The feds don't care if Cascadia burns

This week, federal immigration officials arrested two wildland firefighters working to contain the Bear Gulch fire on Washington's Olympic peninsula. According to reporting from the AP, the two firefighters, who worked for a contractor helping to prevent the human-caused fire from spreading, were living in the US without documentation and were detained by Border Patrol agents. The Bear Gulch fire has burned more than 9,000 acres of Washington's southeast Olympic peninsula since it started on July 6. Immigration attorney Rodrigo Fernandez-Ortega summed it up best when he said,

“We have seen entire towns burned to the ground and it is outrageous that the US border patrol unlawfully detained the brave individuals who are protecting us.”

The incident drew outrage from Senator Patty Murray, governor Bob Ferguson, and Senator Ron Wyden (one of those detained lives in Oregon). And the arrest drew a firestorm of criticism on social media, with the Needling even weighing in:

Detaining people who are actively working to protect the people and landscapes of Cascadia is fundamentally wrong. It's a cruel crackdown not focused on safety but on creating a climate of fear and intimidation in immigrant communities. Every day, there's more bad news for Oregon and Washington related to Trump's mass deportation campaign and other misguided policies.

Cherries have been left to rot in Cascadia because there weren't enough migrant pickers.

Tourism from British Columbia to Washington declined by more than half in May.

Oregon's economy is in decline, and the state faces an $888 million loss of revenue after severe cuts to the federal budget.

These impacts will take a long time to heal, and in the meantime, residents of Washington and Oregon will continue to see their economies crumble and their sovereign ability to protect the safety of our people and our environment relentlessly threatened by the feds.

We don't actually want to separate from the United States. Under previous administrations, the people of Washington and Oregon were granted wide latitude to control our affairs and manage local problems as we see fit. But after just seven months of the Trump administration it's clear that the federal government is now actively working against the needs of the people of the Pacific Northwest.

As Trump prepares to send National Guard troops to Chicago for a completely fake crisis, it's only a matter of time before Portland and Seattle will be faced with a similar invasion (Donald Trump Jr. and others including Labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer have already called for intervention in Cascadia – for what reason, they can't really say).

The people of Washington and Oregon are opposed to this fascist regime and don't want roving bands of masked armed agents kidnapping hard-working people like those two firefighters.

If Cascadia were truly independent, we could better manage our economy, the health of our residents, and our response to the climate crisis, finally free from meddling by the feds. And as a recent proposal to rescind the Forest Service's roadless rule protecting some 58 million acres of public land across the west demonstrates, the federal government no longer cares about Cascadia – other than seeing it as a source of revenue for its rich corporate donors.

Writing for Idaho Capital Sun, Kevin Proescholdt and George Nickas note that the west's wilderness areas are under increased stress after cuts to Forest Service budgets have eviscerated staff. Combined with climate change and increased visitor use, even our most precious alpine country is also under threat.

It's time to manage Cascadia's affairs on our own. We need to prepare for statewide protests and a referendum on separation, perhaps as soon as November 2026. I've had enough – haven't you?

--Andrew Engelson