US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents arrested and forcibly removed 21 Filipino migrant workers from the ship where they were working while it was docked at the port of Norfolk, Virginia, USA on June 28. Some of those who were arrested have already been sent back to the Philippines. All the Filipino migrant workers had C1/D visas, which allow them to work on ships in the US for up to 10 years. Thety worked as crew members of the cruise ship Carnival Sunshine.
The pursuit and arrest of ship workers began as early as February. Among the vessels raided by CBP were the Viking and Pearl Seas Cruises ships.
The CBP usually targets cooks, casino workers, and custodians on these ships. They are removed from the ship and detained at CBP offices, hotels, or airports, even without formal charges.
“They treated us like criminals. They did not give us food nor water. We were crying. We want justice for what was done to us,” Marcelo Morales, a ship cook CBP arrested, said.
Morales said CBP agents began targeting him on May 30 when they seized his cellphone to check for pornographic content.
“They confiscated my cellphone and checked everything thoroughly. After the official search, they asked if I had viewed child pornography. I denied the accusation, and after they found nothing, I was cleared and allowed to return to the vessel—no charges, not even a warning,” Morales narrated.
But on June 28, when their ship docked again in Norfolk, the agents returned and arrested Morales. They took his fingerprints and DNA sample and accused him of watching videos involving child sexual abuse.
“No new evidence was shown. They didn’t search my phone again—they just placed it in a small transparent envelope and took me in,” said Morales.
Eight more Filipino ship workers were arrested with him—a cook, four stewards, a waiter, and a sanitation worker. They were forcibly removed from the ship with their hands and feet in shackles.
Agents forced them to sign documents canceling their C1/D visas.
“That’s when we panicked. When we asked what charges we were facing, they told us, ‘We cannot answer you.’” Despite their refusal to sign, their visas were still stamped as “revoked.”
They were not allowed to get a lawyer and were forbidden from using the phone. Only a staff member from the ship’s human resources department visited them while they were detained. Morales said they felt abandoned. “They told us to follow American law—but no one explained anything to us.”
Upon arrival in Manila, they were handed official notices citing violations of Section 212 of the US Immigration and Nationality Act, which involves illegal entry into the country or unauthorized ship transfers. They were also banned from re-entering the US for 10 years.
This crackdown on Filipino ship workers is part of the intensified campaign of arrest, abduction, and deportation of immigrants in the US by the fascist Trump administration.
