U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) recently deported at least fifteen non-U.S. crew members from two cruise ships in Boston.
CBP agents abducted five crew members from the Viking Mars when the Viking cruise ship was in Boston on September 3 and 4, and quickly deported them to the Philippines. CBP agents also deported ten crew members from the Norwegian Escape on August 31.
These warrantless abductions were part of the so-called “Operation Tidal Wave” where CBP targets crew members, primarily from the Philippines, employed on U.S. based cruise ships calling on U.S. ports. CBP always alleges, as a reason for abducting crew members, that they were involved in the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and/or child sexual exploitation material (CSEM).
The current trend is that the U.S. federal government will not arrest and criminally prosecute crew members but instead quickly deport them to their home country after they are stripped of their seaman’s visa and prohibited from returning to the U.S. for ten years.
Only one crew member out of the last 68 abducted by CBP has been arrested and prosecuted.
Link to 5 Crew Members Deported From the Viking Mars 5 Crew Members Deported From the Viking Mars
We first learned of this newest round of deportations when the family of one of the Filipino crew members who worked on the Viking Mars contacted us and requested information about the whereabouts of their family member.
The family explained that CBP took five Filipino crew members off the cruise ship at the port of Boston and interrogated them. The CBP refused to permit the seamen to contact a lawyer, representatives of an advocacy group, or their embassy. Some of the crew members did not speak English fluently. They were under pressure to respond to intense questioning during an interrogation without the benefit of an interpreter or an understanding of the basis of the questions. No one was provided with evidence of the accusations.
The selected crew members were not permitted to speak with anyone, including family members or an attorney. At the end of the interrogation, they were handed a ticket back to Manila and a clear plastic bag with some personal effects. CBP did not permit them to return to the Viking cruise ship, where they were forced to abandon their work certificates and valuables.
There is no CBP press release or news reports mentioning this particular abduction.
The crew member in question arrived back in the Philippines but his family reports that he is severely traumatized by the ordeal.
Link to 10 Crew Members Deported From the Norwegian Escape 10 Crew Members Deported From the Norwegian Escape
On September 3, CBP published a press release that reported that ten crew members from the Norwegian Escape at the port of Boston were deported. The press release mentions that on August 31, nine citizens of the Philippines and one citizen of Nepal who worked as crew members on the NCL cruise ship were deported.
The raid marked the second such immigration enforcement action in Boston last month. CBP previously removed 14 crew members from the Norwegian Breakaway, HAL’s Volendam, and Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas.
These aggressive abductions fit a regular pattern of the U.S. federal government systematically bypassing the U.S. legal system to avoid giving foreign workers a fair trial.
Link to CBP Alleges the Abducted Crew Members “Admitted” to Consuming CSEM CBP Alleges the Abducted Crew Members “Admitted” to Consuming CSEM
The press release issued by CBP contains a new wrinkle in removing foreign crew members. Not only did the CBP release not contain any specific allegations of criminal wrongdoing, but it affirmatively (and fancifully) represents that each crew member allegedly confessed to the heinous conduct. The release states that during secondary interviews of the ten crew members from the Norwegian Escape on August 31, the men allegedly “admitted to previously consuming CSEM/CSAM.”
It is unclear whether the CBP wants the public to believe that the crew members each admitted in writing to a crime or whether they confessed orally. In any event, CBP’s representation that all ten crew members really confessed to possessing child pornography should be met with skepticism if not ridicule. In several prior abductions, investigative reporting by networks like NPR and advocacy trackers by the Pilipino Workers Center (PWC) have exposed that the “confessions” cited by CBP are heavily contested and allegedly obtained through systemic coercion and duress. But publicly accusing the men of such a dastardly act is a useful tool of shaming them to “voluntarily” leave the U.S.
Seafarer advocacy groups like Migrante USA and PWC have documented testimony from hundreds of deported Filipino sailors who describe identical interrogation environments. CBP agents typically board the ships, isolate workers, seize their phones, and subject them to hours of intensive questioning without food, water, or access to outside communication. Read: Deported Filipino Sailors Say They Were Falsely Linked to Child Sexual Abuse Material.
Crew members are typically threatened with decades in a U.S. federal prison away from their families unless they sign expedited “voluntary departure” forms. Exhausted, terrified, and lacking legal counsel, many sign the paperwork just to escape detention, which CBP then publicly frames as an “admission of guilt.”
Link to CBP Reported Crew Member Detentions CBP Reported Crew Member Detentions
Since April of this year, CBP has officially reported (via press releases) that it has deported 65 crew members as part of its Tidal Wave program, while arresting only one ship employee for prosecution. Here is the breakdown:
Phase 1 (San Diego April): 27 crew members deported. This group consisted of 25 individuals from the Philippines, one from Indonesia, and one from Portugal. CBP raided eight different cruise ships and deported 27 crew members from six distinct ships, including the Disney Magic and HAL’s Zaandam.
Phase 2 (San Juan June–July): 15 crew members were targeted. 14 faced administrative immigration removal and one unidentified crew member faced federal criminal prosecution.
Phase 3 (Boston August 14–16): 14 crew members deported (Volendam, Norwegian Breakaway, and Vision of the Seas).
Phase 3 Extension (Boston August 31): 10 crew members deported (Norwegian Escape).
Phase 3 Extension (Boston September 2–3): 5 crew members deported from the Viking Mars (information not released by CBP).
Operation “Tidal Wave” is part of a wider federal effort targeting employees on cruise ships that has led over the last several years to over 200 crew members being deported for alleged possession of CSEM and CSAM. Last May, we reported that only 10% of the approximately 200 crew members abducted by CBP face criminal charges. Over the four months since May, only one crew member of the last 68 abducted for CSAM (approximately 1.5%) has faced criminal prosecution. This trend has reduced the prosecution rate to less than 8% of the approximately 250 crew members abducted from cruise ships.
The CBP is clearly doubling-down to the practice of quickly deporting foreign crew members out of the U.S. by denying them legal counsel and any sense of due process and fairness.
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 of reasons why the lack of transparency from ICE and CBP and their accusation about CSAM is concerning.
Link to Deporting Crew Members Without Due Process Is Unconstitutional And Doesn’t Protect Children Deporting Crew Members Without Due Process Is Unconstitutional And Doesn’t Protect Children
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. These crew members were accused of viewing CSAM on a variety of cruise ships which cater to U.S. families with children and 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 to their home countries where they can commit more crimes against children.
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, over the past year federal agents shot three U.S. citizens (Marimar Martinez, Renée Nicole Macklin Good, and Alex Jeffrey Pretti) 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 terrorists” among other false and derogatory statements about their deaths that were subsequently proven to be clearly contradicted by video evidence.
If U.S. federal immigration agents can murder U.S. citizens on 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, humiliate him with the stigma of heinous crimes involving minors, and then send him back to his home where he faces unemployment and his family will endure severe economic hardship.
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Photo credit: Viking Mars – Philippe Alès – CC BY-SA 4.0 commons / wikimedia; Norwegian Escape – Arno Redenius – CC BY-SA 4.0 commons / wikimedia.
