Federal agents detained crew members aboard a Disney cruise ship and at least one other vessel at the Port of San Diego last month as part of a child sexual exploitation investigation, authorities said Wednesday, more than two weeks after the operation sparked confusion among passengers who initially believed they had witnessed an immigration sweep.
Homeland Security Investigations spokeswoman Sandra Grisolia said in a statement Wednesday that HSI San Diego arrested 23 crewmembers from multiple cruise ships at the port on April 28 as part of Operation Tidal Wave. The arrests targeted individuals suspected of involvement with child sexual abuse material based on information received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The arrestees were transported to Los Angeles for processing, and their visas were revoked.
Separately, according to CBS 8, a CBP spokesperson said the agency boarded five cruise ships, including the Disney vessel, between April 23 and April 25 as part of ongoing child sexual exploitation material enforcement operations, and that all individuals interviewed were suspected of involvement in the receipt, possession, transportation, distribution or viewing of such material. Their visas were cancelled and they are being removed from the country, the spokesperson said.
The total number of individuals detained across both operations, and the full breakdown of which ships were involved, has not been independently confirmed through an official CBP press release or statement to The Washington Times.
KPBS, citing activists, reported that CBP agents detained approximately 10 workers from the Disney cruise ship on April 23 and four workers from a Holland America vessel on April 25.
The operation went unexplained to onlookers for nearly two weeks. Local immigrant rights activists held a news conference at the B Street Pier on Tuesday calling on CBP to release more information, including the names of the individuals detained, the reasons for their arrest and their current whereabouts.
The confusion arose in part because the Port of San Diego Harbor Police Department said it had no involvement in the enforcement actions on April 23 or April 25 at the B Street Cruise Terminal, and that in accordance with California law, including SB 54, Harbor Police does not participate in immigration enforcement activities. That framing initially led the incident to be reported and discussed publicly as an immigration action.
Dharmi Mehta, a passenger on the Disney Magic, filmed the April 23 detentions as she left the terminal. The video she captured shows CBP agents loading several Disney Cruise Line crew members, still in their work uniforms, into an unmarked white van.
“One of the employees in restraints was a head server who had been serving me and my family for the duration of my trip,” Ms. Mehta said. “We got to know him fairly well — he was actually serving us 45 minutes to an hour before he was in restraints.”
Holland America Line said in a statement that the matter is a law enforcement issue and that the company cooperates with law enforcement investigations in jurisdictions where it operates. Disney issued a statement saying it has a zero-tolerance policy for such conduct, fully cooperated with law enforcement and that the individuals involved are no longer employed by the company, according to reporting by the New York Post and TMZ.
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