ICE deports dozens of migrants working on Disney cruise ships after child porn bust, agency says
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents stormed Disney’s Magic cruise ship earlier this month and detained nearly 30 crew members as part of a child sexual exploitation material operation.
Between April 23 and 27, agents boarded eight cruise ships as part of an ongoing investigation into Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEM) operations, the agency said.
“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 of CSEM 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.
The agency did not share the names of any of the staffers who were arrested.
A spokesperson for Disney Cruise Line told Variety: “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.”
Disney Cruise Line did not return The Independent’s request for comment on the incident.
On April 23, passengers aboard the Disney Magic ship captured video of several crew members being arrested by ICE agents as the ship docked in the Port of San Diego following a five-day cruise.
Traveler Dharmi Mehta and her family had enjoyed their trip, but were upset when they saw the head waiter, whom they had become close with, being led away from the docked boat with his hands zip-tied behind his back.
“We got to know him fairly well, and he had actually been serving us probably 45 minutes to an hour before he was in restraints,” she said during a news conference Tuesday, nearly two weeks after the horrifying incident.
Crew members were still wearing their Disney-issued uniforms and didn’t have any of their belongings with them as they were being detained. Mehta said she knew the head waiter had two daughters whom he was excited to get to see later this month.
She described the experience as “really disheartening and unsettling,” adding that she and her family had many questions about what would happen to the employees and how they would get home.
Mehta was joined at Tuesday’s news conference by representatives of several migrants rights groups who claim crewmembers aboard another cruise ship were detained on April 25, two days after the incident on the Disney ship.
The activists said four “seafarers” working aboard Holland America’s MV Zandaam were taken during that ICE raid.
A spokesperson for the Port of San Diego told NBC 7: “The Port of San Diego Harbor Police Department did not have any involvement in the reported enforcement actions on April 23 or April 25 at the B Street Cruise Terminal. We did not receive any calls for service related to these incidents. In accordance with California law, including SB 54, Harbor Police does not participate in immigration enforcement activities.”
“The B Street Cruise Terminal is a federal port of entry, where law enforcement authority for immigration and customs matters rests with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP),” the statement continued.
“As such, any enforcement actions taken onboard vessels or within the federal inspection area fall under CBP’s jurisdiction.”
