EIGHTEEN Filipino crew members were forcibly removed from the Carnival Sunshine cruise ship at the Port of Norfolk, Virginia, and deported to the Philippines—triggering outrage among Filipino American communities and immigrant rights advocates.

The arbitrary deportation of 18 Filipino seafarers was learned on the same day President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. arrived in Washington D.C. for a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House.

Some of the seafarers were handcuffed and leg-cuffed by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, according to accounts gathered by BusinessMirror.

“Trinato kaming kriminal. Hindi kami pinakain, walang tubig. Nag-iiyakan na kami. Gusto namin ng hustisya sa ginawa sa amin [We were treated like criminals. No food, no water. We were crying. We want justice for what was done to us],” said Marcelo Morales, a shipboard chef from Southern Leyte, in a phone interview.

CBP agents began boarding the cruise ship at nearly every port call to Norfolk since February 2025, apprehending Filipino crew members in batches…

Only a staff member from the cruise line’s Human Resources department visited them during detention, but Morales said they felt abandoned.

“They told us to follow American law—but no one explained anything to us,” he said…