Credit: Walt Disney Travel CompanyYesterday, we published a story about federal agents boarding the Disney Magic at the B Street Cruise Terminal in San Diego on April 23 and arresting ten crew members in front of passengers who were still getting off the ship. A passenger named Dharmi Mehta watched her family’s head waiter get loaded into a white van, still in his Disney uniform, no bags, no phone, no warning. Immigration rights groups called the arrests abductions. Advocates cited due process violations. Everyone assumed this was an immigration enforcement sweep, another chapter in the ongoing story of ICE operations targeting workers in industries that rely heavily on foreign labor.
It was not that.
The truth has surfaced, and it is significantly more disturbing than anything the initial reports suggested. Buckle up.
What We Now Know
U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed to the New York Post that the arrests at the Port of San Diego were not part of an immigration crackdown. They were part of a child sexual exploitation sting. CBP carried out the operation, not ICE, and the scope of what happened between April 23 and April 25 was far larger than initial reports indicated.
In total, 28 crew members were arrested across five cruise ships over those two days. CBP confirmed that after boarding the vessels and interviewing the suspects, officers determined that all 28 individuals were involved in the receipt, possession, transportation, distribution, or viewing of child sexual exploitation material, also referred to as child pornography. Twenty-six of the arrested crew members were from the Philippines, one was from Portugal, and one was from Indonesia. All had their visas revoked and were being deported from the United States.
The other cruise lines involved beyond Disney and Holland America have not been publicly confirmed.
Disney cruise ship staffers among 28 arrested in massive child porn operation https://t.co/syY3rRMsNf pic.twitter.com/fPgTMXF5ZH
— New York Post (@nypost) May 7, 2026
What Disney Cruise Line Said
Disney Cruise Line issued a statement after the new details became public. The company said it has a zero-tolerance policy for this type of behavior, that it fully cooperated with law enforcement, and that the individuals involved are no longer with the company.
That is the entirety of Disney’s public response.
Why the Initial Reporting Looked the Way It Did
It is worth explaining how a child exploitation sting got reported as an immigration sweep for two weeks before the truth came out. When Mehta and other passengers witnessed the arrests on April 23, what they saw was federal agents in plainclothes escorting uniformed cruise workers off the ship in restraints and loading them into vans. Nobody on the pier that day was told what the operation was actually about. The Port of San Diego confirmed that Harbor Police had no involvement and cited California’s SB 54, which bars local law enforcement from participating in immigration enforcement, which framed the entire incident as an ICE action in the public narrative.
Immigration rights groups held a press conference, called the detentions abductions, and demanded transparency from federal agencies. CBP did not respond to press inquiries at the time. Disney did not comment. The maritime attorney who weighed in said agents obviously had a reason to be there but would not say what it was.
In the absence of any official explanation, everyone filled in the blanks with the most obvious available story. A federal operation at a port involving foreign national workers with visa status looked exactly like an immigration sweep, because that is what most federal operations at ports involving foreign national workers look like right now. The actual reason was not disclosed until this week.
What This Means for the Disney Cruise Passenger Who Went Public
Dharmi Mehta held a press conference and spoke publicly and emotionally about watching her family’s head waiter get arrested. She talked about his two daughters. She worried about whether his family knew he was not coming home. She framed the whole thing as an injustice and a violation of workers’ rights.
None of that changes how she felt in the moment, and none of it means she did anything wrong by speaking publicly about what she witnessed. She saw something alarming and described it honestly from her perspective. She did not have access to information that even federal officials were not releasing.
But the context of what she actually watched has now changed completely.
What Happens Next for Disney Cruise Line and Beyond
All 28 arrested crew members are being deported. Their visas have been revoked. Disney has confirmed that they are no longer employed by the company. CBP has not released additional details about the investigation or whether charges beyond deportation are being pursued.
The Disney Magic has continued sailing. Disney Cruise Line’s announced expansion of its San Diego port schedule remains in place. The B Street Cruise Terminal looks exactly as it did before April 23.
What does not look the same is the story that spent two weeks being told about what happened there. The maritime attorney who said agents obviously had a reason to go there was right. Nobody could have guessed what that reason actually was.
