Customs and Border Safety (CBP) not too long ago detained and deported crew members from a cruise ship operated by Victory Cruise Strains. I used to be first contacted three days in the past by a cruise passenger who communicated with 4 crew members who knowledgeable him that CBP officers boarded the Victory I cruise ship whereas it was docked on the Detroit River dock in Detroit. CBP detained 9 crew members, accusing among the ship staff of possessing baby pornography. The CBP officers then departed the cruise ship with the crew members with the intent to deport them. All of those crew members held legitimate C1/D seaman visas letting them be employed on cruise ships calling on U.S. ports.
The affected crew members have been largely employed within the ship’s housekeeping division.
Not one of the detained crew members have been supplied with entry to authorized counsel earlier than they have been detained and deported.
The Fb web page @CrimeInTheD first reported on the incident to largely readers who applauded the CBP with out questioning how and why the crew members have been apprehended and deported.
Peter Knego reported the incident on his Fb web page and the primary episode of his latest podcast referred to as A Little Bit Of Ship Banter with Dan Trauchtenberg (watch 24:45 – 31:35). There may be extra info on each of those sources suggesting that CBP made comparable raids on different cruise ships, together with the Viking Octantis and Viking Polaris the place a complete of sixteen crew members have been detained and deported from Detroit final week.
Mr. Knego supplied a lot wanted context into this disturbing information and raised primary problems with humanity and morality. Mr. Knego reported that “Kristi Noem’s CBP marauders have now began handcuffing and deporting crew members of Victory Cruise Strains VICTORY I and VICTORY II . . . The crew haven’t any authorized recourse and are being detained, then shipped again. Morale on each ships is low, crew are being instructed to not communicate with the press and lots of are contemplating leaving, for concern of being unjustly arrested.”
There aren’t any main newspapers masking this information right now. One journey periodic, Journey Weekly, reported yesterday that on July ninth and eleventh, the CBP eliminated 13 crew members from Victory Cruise Strains’ two cruise ship, the Victory I and Victory II. The publication additionally talked about that “based on social media stories, different ships working in a single day cruises on the Nice Lakes have additionally had crew eliminated by federal brokers.”
There may be totally different reporting relating to the date of the CBP raids, with some sources contending that the crew members have been apprehended on June twentieth. My info (and that reported by Mr. Knego) is that the apprehension of the crew on the Victory cruise ships occurred final week.
Mr. Knego rightfully calls this warrantless apprehension and deportation of those crew members the “canary within the cruising world coal mine.”
Lawyer Angie Williams additionally reported on BlueSky that there have been quite a few crew members apprehended and eliminated in handcuffs final week, apparently referring to the staff engaged on Viking exhibition ships:
This isn’t the primary time that CBP has raided a cruise ship with no warrant and deported crew members. Simply final Might, we reported on the CBP collaboration with the Port of Galveston in Texas and Port Canaveral in Florida in an operation that caught 11 cruise ship crew members (we later realized have been all employed by Royal Caribbean). Learn: Blurred Faces and Omitted Names: Customs and Border Safety Arrest One and Deport Ten Crew Members for Baby Exploitation. After the warrantless raid, the CBP issued a press launch which described the multi-agency operations as a “cruise ship crack down” involving “baby exploitation offenders.”
The CBP went so far as to subject a press launch with no point out of the names of the cruise ships concerned and posted images of officers with their faces obscured. As is the case with raids by the masked officers of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of agricultural and farm employees, CBP typically operates in a shroud of secrecy. CBP didn’t acquire a warrant or any proof establishing possible trigger and even cheap suspicion. If the true purpose for detaining eleven crew members was possession of kid pornography, why was just one crew member arrested and ten have been deported to locations unknown? CBP’s press launch contained no rationalization of this discrepancy and no dialogue of the circumstances for apprehending these eleven ship staff.
Many individuals will rejoice the information of an alleged baby sexual pervert being deported, however the actuality is that even when these crew members have been concerned in such heinous crimes, they doubtless won’t be prosecuted of their house nation if that’s the place they have been despatched. Moreover, they won’t be prosecuted for alleged crimes dedicated on a U.S. based mostly cruise ship after being deported. Furthermore, these crew members needs to be entitled to acquire authorized illustration and due course of. They’ve been denied the proper to see the incriminating details, if any, supporting these critical allegations and to confront their accusers in a courtroom of legislation.
This entire lack of transparency is per the general public which has typically seen masked federal officers with out warrants rounding up immigrants and hauling them off to native detention facilities or flying them to distant gulags outdoors of the U.S. in defiance of courtroom orders. As Mr. Knego explains, CHP’s illegal acts are clearly “random, reckless, and harmful.”
Victory Cruise Strains’ Chairman John Waggoner was quoted saying to the media after his crew members have been movement from the U.S. that “we’re actively cooperating with federal authorities to make clear the circumstances, and my precedence is at all times our crew and the expertise for our company. We want to thank federal, state and native representatives throughout the Nice Lakes for his or her immediate and continued consideration to this matter.” However this cruise CEO is clearly misguided. Sadly, “cooperating with federal authorities” who’re ignoring primary authorized protections is a part of the reason why the warrantless CBP was permitted to board the cruise ship within the first place. It reveals Victory Cruise Strains’ misguided deference to U.S. federal businesses on the the expense of the onerous working crew members.
The one points at this level is what number of extra occasions will the CBP goal non-U.S. crew members on cruise ships calling on U.S. ports? What number of spineless cruise CEO’s will welcome onto their cruise ships federal brokers who wait on the docks, with no warrants or possible trigger, itching to conduct unlawful apprehensions?
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Photograph credit score: Victory I – Peter Knego
July 16, 2025 Replace:
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Mr. Knego shared his commentary about this case on QuirkyCruise.
