Activists question immigration arrests of Disney cruise ship workers at San Diego pier
Groups are also raising questions about arrests of workers from a Holland America ship.
Written by Kate Morrissey, Edited by Maya Srikrishnan
Customs and Border Protection officials detained more than a dozen cruise ship workers at San Diego docks over a couple of days in late April, according to activists and an eyewitness.
Benjamin Prado of Unión del Barrio said that activists know about approximately 10 workers detained from a Disney ship on April 23 and four workers detained from a Holland America ship on April 25. Many of those workers are believed to be from the Philippines.
Unión del Barrio members gathered with Tanggol Migrante Movement, Anakbayan San Diego and other activists on Tuesday to question what had happened to the workers.
“As we see more abductions taking place, due process being suspended, access to consular services being limited, and absolutely no information about the whereabouts of these workers, 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 communities, as well as those that work on ships,” Prado said.
Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for comment.
Disney and Holland America also did not respond to requests for comment.
Customs and Border Protection told Prado that the agency can't discuss specific cases because of privacy concerns.
“All persons arriving at a port-of-entry to the United States are subject to inspection,” the agency told him in an email reviewed by Daylight. “As part of their critical national security mission, CBP officers determine admissibility of foreign nationals using U.S. immigration law [Section 291 of the INA [8 USC 1361] which lists more than 60 grounds of inadmissibility divided into several major categories, including health-related, prior criminal convictions, security reasons, public charge, labor certification, illegal entrants and immigration violations, documentation requirements, and miscellaneous grounds.”
Prado noted twice in his emails to Customs and Border Protection that the workers did not appear to be requesting entry to the United States and that they had been arrested on the ship.
The Port of San Diego recently signed a deal with Disney to give it priority access to berths in exchange for a guaranteed minimum number of passengers, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Dharmi Mehta said she and her family had spent four nights aboard a Disney cruise ship, sailing to Catalina Island and Ensenada before returning to San Diego early on the morning of April 23. She said she and her family got to know Joel, the head server assigned to them in the dining room who wore a checkered blazer and red tie as his uniform, pretty well over the trip.
Joel told her that he was looking forward to a few weeks off the ship to go see his daughters in the Philippines, she said.
That last morning, Mehta said, she and her family went for a final breakfast in the restaurant before disembarking.
As they left, they saw Joel looking distraught, Mehta said.
As she waited in the customs line, she saw Customs and Border Protection officials taking employees in restraints off of the cruise ship outside. Once she was through the line, she went to pick up her car from where she had left it nearby while her family waited with their luggage.
When she returned with the car, she saw Customs and Border Protection officers putting another set of employees in restraints into a van. Among them was Joel, still wearing his checkered blazer and red tie.
“It was really disheartening and unsettling,” Mehta said.
Mehta said the other employees arrested were also still in their uniforms. They did not appear to have any belongings with them, which concerned her. She said the ship was scheduled to leave again that same day, and she worried what would happen to the workers left behind.
“Where will they go? How do they go home? Do they still have a job?” she asked.
Anna Rapada with Tanggol Migrante Movement said that family members worried about their loved ones contacted the International Seafarers Action Center. The center then asked her organization for help locating the workers after officials arrested four from a Holland America ship called Zaandam.
Rapada said she and others from the group went to the port to try to get answers and that they hadn't been able to get any information from Customs and Border Protection. She said they'd contacted the Filipino Consulate but were still waiting to hear back.
“It's a very confusing and frustrating system,” she said. “We're getting the runaround of who to talk to, who has the answers, where to go.”
Mehta said the experience was her first cruise in almost 20 years. She wants to see how Disney and other cruise lines support the detained employees. She said that could impact her decision whether to cruise again.
