U.S. immigration authorities canceled the visas of more than two dozen people in late April after U.S. Customs and Border Protection said they were involved in child sexual abuse image-related activity aboard cruise ships, including some workers tied to a Disney Cruise Line ship.
The agency said on Tuesday that its officers boarded eight cruise ships in late April and identified 27 people involved in the receipt, possession, transportation, distribution or viewing of child sexual abuse images. Most of the 27 were from the Philippines, and the visas were canceled before they were returned to their home countries.
Disney Cruise Line said it has a zero-tolerance policy for this type of behavior and fully cooperated with law enforcement. The company said those who were from its cruise line are no longer with the company.
The case centered on allegations tied to child sexual abuse images rather than criminal charges, and Customs and Border Protection said a criminal charge is not required for a visa to be revoked. That point matters because immigrant and workers’ rights groups said they had been trying to get information about the workers and why the enforcement action was taken.
At least some of the ships had docked in San Diego, and the dispute now sits at the intersection of immigration enforcement, maritime work and a criminal allegation serious enough to end careers even without a courtroom case. For the workers whose visas were pulled, the punishment came first, and the explanation is still being fought over.
