Crews Exclusively Restricted from Shore Leave at LA Port—
Rep. Hahn Talks About the Issue By James P. Allen, Publisher
Recently, back from the Congressional battle over the 16-day federal government shutdown, Rep. Janice Hahn sat down with Random Lengths News publisher James Allen to catch up on D.C. politics. The conversation included the subject of how Homeland Security is restricting cruise ship crew members from leaving the ships that dock at Port of Los Angeles. Apparently, this restriction only applies at the West Coast port and none other. James Allen: The issue of detaining or restricting crew members from the cruise ships at the POLA exclusively, has been brought up. Janice tell me what you know about this. Janice Hahn: Well, apparently since January, after there were, I think from January to March, a total of 9 jumpers, they call them. Not solely off of cruise ships but off of some of the cargo vessels, folks who, kind of in the Ante Perkov model jump ship to come to America.
JA: So, Ante is one of our more famous illegal immigrants. JH: He jumped ship and swam, that’s his story. So customs and border patrol feel like this is a obviously an immigration issue. And, they feel like there was someone in San Pedro, a coyote, who was helping these folks once they…
Serving the Seven Cities of the Harbor Area
JA: When I lived on 20th Street, my neighbor used to rent out his backyard in quadrants to illegal Croatian immigrants. They were basically sleeping on old couches and mattresses. So, illegal immigration in San Pedro has more to do with Eastern Europeans than it does Mexicans. JH: So, in response our customs and border patrol have started detaining every crew member
Rep. Janice Hahn pictured with descendants of folksinger Woodie Guthrie during the opening of Harry Bridges Elementary School in 2012. File photo
on these ships. Carnival, Princess, Holland America. They won’t let them off for shore leave. These guys come in here in the morning, 5:30 to 6. They let them off to go shop at [the] 99 Cent store, Target, they go to that little shopping center, the industrial marine shopping center, then they have to be back on at 2. So they give them 4 hours of shore leave, basically. And, these are crew members [who have] been on the ship for awhile. This is their chance to spend some money in our local economy and get off the ship for awhile. And of course, Jodie Davidson’s family has owned this little store right on the cruise terminal level. It’s like 25 feet from the ship. This was a place where crew members would buy underwear, t-shirts, money orders, send stuff home. It’s kind of like the canteen at camp. It has all the little things that you just need to buy that you left home without. Just
taking one business in San Pedro, their business is completely tanked. Their whole business relies on crew members. So, that’s where I first began to hear about it, Jodie Davidson began texting me and saying do you know what’s going on? So, I met with the [Customs and Border Patrol], in [Long Beach] in D.C., saying this seems a little heavy handed, particularly when they are allowed to get off. There’s a ship a couple weeks ago, all the crew members got off in [San Francisco]. Come down here, nobody gets off. So to me, I understand if there is someone in San Pedro trying to help them, but my feeling is [that] if you want to come to America, you have a lot of opportunities to not return to the ship, Hawaii. They even let them off in [Long Beach]. So, it’s just San Pedro. Which we think is problematic economics, for our businesses in San Pedro, but also long term. We think this is going
to hurt the ports cruise business. Why are these cruises going continue to come to San Pedro. The captain is upset about it. They’re going to start complaining to their management in Carnival or Princess saying, “You know, we don’t really like San Pedro.” JA: So what has Customs and Border Patrol told you? JH: What’s upsetting to me is that CBP at one point we actually felt like we had a step forward to mitigating this a little bit. They said all we need from the cruise ship is for them to give us the manifest 48-hours out of the names of the crew, we’ll run it through the traps. See if there is any at risk folks. Maybe there is nine on there that we are not sure about. Let everyone else of except for those nine. JA: This is maybe more about counterterrorism? JH: Well, obviously that’s what they are saying, which makes a little nervous because I’m thinking, “OK, lets take that for an example, are we really thinking the crew on these passenger ships that hold 3,000 tourists, that we think there might be a terrorist in Princess’s crew?” We got a bigger problem if we really think that is true. Here is the kind of screening they do: Every member gets a background check. Plus, they are on probation for 90 days. So, a new guy tries to get a job, 90 days after the background check. Ninety days you don’t get off just because we want to make sure. So already they have a little bit of this layer built in. JA: Doesn’t the homeland security have some kind of roster? JH: Here’s my other problem with that theory. Two weeks ago, same thing, Saturday morning everybody stays on board, Jodie’s furious. So I get on the phone with CBP, “Last week you told me…have you anything,” and they said, “Well, you know last week we had a jumper.” Technically, they’re not a jumper, they just hadn’t gotten back on board. And, I called John Holmes, [deputy director of operation at POLA], “Did you know last weekend we had a crew member who did not return? Were you notified? Was [Los Angeles Police Department] notified? Were Port Police notified? Was the immigration notified? So, if this is a really big problem…” No, they had no knowledge that there was someone in San Pedro possibly that never returned.
JA: The last jumper I’ve heard of in the port was Tony Scott. JH: God rest his soul. So, there are for me a lot of unanswered questions, what is the problem we are trying to fix? What are we worried about? And if we really think these groups would do harm to America who’s onboard on a captive ship with 3,000 people, then I think we have a bigger problem.
November 15 - 27, 2013
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the ILWU still faces three holdout companies, Mitsui/United Grain Corp., Marubeni/Columbia Grain and Louis Dreyfus Commodities, which are demanding that the ILWU make concessions. The Inlandboatmen’s Union and the Masters, Mates & Pilots Union continue their adamant respect for the ILWU picket lines on the entire Columbia and Snake River system. As a result, Export Grain Terminal attempted to circumvent using ILWU labor to load and unload grain in the port of Portland with non-ILWU labor in violation of labor rules. The two parties are currently fighting in court to decide the matter. Should the ILWU lose this case, it would set a precedent for other companies to get around using ILWU labor in the future.