Agents from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) stormed the Disney Magic after it docked in San Diego late last month, detaining 10 crew members, most of whom were led from the Disney cruise ship with their hands zip-tied behind their backs.
Images of Disney crew members being led into unmarked CBP vans have been widely published. Yet, none of the coverage mentioned that the deporting of crew members, based on questionable allegations of reviewing Child Sexual Abuse Materials (“CSAM”), had been occurring frequently over the last two years.
Last November, we reported that 200 crew members have been accused of possessing CSAM. Around 20 were arrested and prosecuted, with around 180 deported. That means less than one crew member in ten are arrested and prosecuted for possession of child pornography; the rest are deported to their home countries.
This raises the obvious question – why did CBP deport over 200 crew members for allegedly viewing CSAM but arrest and prosecute only 20 for the same conduct?
The raid on the Disney ship became widely reported only after a Disney cruise passenger, Dharmi Mehta, who was disembarking the ship with her family, said she was stunned to see the ship’s head waiter led away while shackled. Ms. Mehta recorded the spectacle of Disney ship employees still wearing Disney uniforms on the dock in San Diego as they were manhandled by armed CBP agents into white vans. She told the New Republic that while on the ship, she befriended the head waiter who told her that he has two daughters. She called the sight of cruise workers in uniform with their hands behind their backs, handcuffed and surrounded by Customs and Border Protection officers being pushed into vans “disheartening and unsettling.”
Immigrant community groups said that CBP, as well as other federal law enforcement authorities, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially provided no explanation for the detentions or the crew members’ whereabouts.
“This is not an isolated incident,” said Benjamin Prado from Union del Barrio. “In fact, it has become a growing pattern, not only here in San Diego but throughout this country.”
Prado called the actions taken by federal agents “abductions” and said the detainees were being denied due process and access to lawyers and consular services.
“It is our responsibility as a society, as working people, to really denounce these actions by Customs and Border Protection, by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the prolonged detention of migrant workers, whether it be here in our own community as well as those that work on ships,” Prado added.
The operation went unexplained for nearly two weeks. Local immigrant rights activists held a news conference in San Diego “calling on CBP to release more information, including the names of the individuals detained, the reasons for their arrest and their current whereabouts.
Later, and only after the migrant groups pressed the issue, DHS claimed that between April 23 and 27, agents boarded eight cruise ships, allegedly as part of an ongoing investigation into CSAM) operations.
“After boarding the vessel and interviewing 26 suspected crew members from the Philippines, one suspected crew member from Portugal, and one from Indonesia, officers confirmed that 27 of the 28 subjects were involved in either the receipt, possession, transportation, distribution, or viewing CSAM or child pornography,” the agency told The Independent in a statement. “CBP cancelled their visas and these criminals have been returned to their country of citizenship,” the statement added.
DHS did not identify any of the ships it raided, nor did it identify any of the crew members or describe any of the CSAM these crew members allegedly viewed.
Several news outlets reported that the raided cruise ships included two Disney ships (Disney Magic and Disney Wonder) and the MV Zandaam, operated by Holland America Line.
We have reported on many cases where the FBI arrested crew members for viewing CSAM. For example, we reported on two cases where the FBI arrested two crew members on the Disney Dream.
But these cases, where crew members are not prosecuted and quickly deported (yet actually called “criminals” by DNS officials), are being handled completely differently than situations where crew members were previously arrested for possession of CSAM. When a crew member is arrested, as opposed to being detained or abducted, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) files an affidavit in the federal criminal court file explaining the circumstances which establish probable cause. The federal attorneys lists the details of the evidence with specific reference to the images, where they were stored, and the age of the victims. Crew members are, of course, entitled to speak and consult with legal counsel and view the criminal charges asserted against them.
But the recent raid on the Disney cruise ships do not involve any semblance of due process, equal protection or right to counsel. Federal immigration agents typically level vague accusations against crew members of allegedly viewing illegal images and then threaten them with long jail sentences if they do not immediately confess, with enticement that they will see their families back home in the Philippines if they do. Pressure, intimidation, and coercion of the hard working crew members, who have typically not seen their family members for many months, are made easy by the absence of legal counsel to protect the crew members’ legal and constitutional rights.
Some of the Filipino crew members have come forward and explained that the images on their cell phone were of their naked young children which is not remotely considered to be pornography by any reasonable standard. Many dozens of accused crew members flatly denied that they reviewed CSAM at all, but felt intimidated by threats of long jail sentences made by aggressive CBP officers during interrogation without due process and legal representation.
The federal immigration raids come as tensions mount a year and half into President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign, according to SFGATE. “The federal government has increased raids and arrests across the country … Immigrant rights activists have accused the federal government of violating human rights and undermining public trust.”
Last month’s cruise ship raids, and subsequent accusations that the detained crew members were allegedly part of a “child pornography ring,” were apparently called “Operation Tidal Wave” by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Disney Cruise Line issued a statement once the video showing the abduction of Disney crew members became public: “We have a zero-tolerance policy for this type of behavior and fully cooperated with law enforcement. While the majority of these individuals were not from our cruise line, those who were are no longer with the company.”
Holland America Line (HAL) said that some of its crewmembers were detained. HAL called the allegations of allegedly viewing CSAM “deeply disturbing” and said that it is cooperating with CBP and that the crewmembers involved have been “terminated.”
We have reported many times about the substantial amount of CSAM that exists on cruise ship. We have also mentioned the fact that our federal government has decided to no longer prosecute foreign nationals for CSAM but to simply deport them, ostensibly to their home countries, where they will escape all criminal responsibility for their alleged crimes.
Just as importantly, CBP continues to refuse to release information to the public, such as the name of cruise line, cruise ship, and where these alleged crimes occurred. This is clearly in violation of the spirit of the Cruise Vessel Security and Safety Act which was designed to educate the public about the danger of sexual crimes on cruise ships.
A KPBS‘ article titled Trump Administration Deported Cruise Ship Workers in Child Sexual Abuse Materials Case, But Did Not Prosecute Them cited immigration policy experts saying there are a couple reasons why the lack of transparency from ICE and CBP and their accusation about CSAM is concerning.
First, it prevents anyone from independently verifying the accusations. ICE claims that crew members were apprehended based on information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), but didn’t provide any details. The NCMEC has not confirmed the claim.
Secondly, when someone accused of a serious crime is deported before facing criminal consequences, victims are prevented from getting justice. The ten deported Disney crew members were accused of viewing CSAM on Disney cruise ships which cater to U.S. families with children which call on U.S. ports. If the crew really viewed CSAM, they should be vigorously prosecuted in a U.S. court of law, not sent home to be with their families.
Thirdly, deporting someone before completing a thorough investigation may also prevent investigators from learning more information about an alleged CSAM operation.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, there have been a number of cases in which U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials made entirely false claims about people’s criminality. For example, last year CBP agents shot three U.S. citizens (Marimar Martinez, Renée Nicole Macklin Good and Alex Jeffrey Prettia) a total of eighteen times, killing two. Homeland Security officials then lied about the crimes they committed, and defamed and falsely accused the victims of being “domestic terrorist” among other false and derogatory statements about their deaths that were subsequently proven to be false and clearly contradicted by video evidence.
If U.S. federal immigration agents can murder U.S. citizens in the streets of America and thereafter lie and escape all accountability, what are the chances that Filipino crew members on foreign-flagged cruise ships will be treated fairly?
If a crew member actually has possession of and reviews CSAM, he should be arrested and prosecuted, and the U.S. government’s allegations should be tested and scrutinized. It is grossly unfair for the CBP to present no evidence of a crime, automatically and summarily deny a ship employee his fundamental rights, strip him of his 10 year seaman visa, and then send him back to his home country where he faces unemployment and his family will endure severe economic hardship.
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Interested in this issue? Consider reading:
Customs and Border Protection Again Detain and Deport Crew Members, This Time From Victory Cruise Lines
Four Crew Members in Port Canaveral Deported For Child Sexual Abuse Material
Filipino Crew Members Continue to be Targeted in Mass Deportations From Cruise Ships
Inquirer Gov’t urged to protest US’ ‘unjust’ treatment of OFWs (“Filipino crew members were ‘falsely accused’ of possessing child pornography materials, ‘without a shred of evidence,’ before they were deported to the Philippines and banned from reentering the United States for 10 years.”)
Reason CBP Is Deporting Cruise Ship Crew Over Child Pornography Allegations Without Evidence
The Virginian-Pilot Advocates protest detentions, deportations of cruise ship employees in Norfolk
Image Credit:
Disney Magic – David T. Flaherty CC BY 2.0 commons / wikimedia; video of CBP hauling Disney crew members into immigration vans – Dharmi Mehta; Detailed crew members – DFO Florida and Customs and Border Protection.