Veteran seized on cruise ship in Miami in apparent mistaken identity

This week, federal immigration agents boarded a Carnival cruise ship in Miami and detained a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard. The man and his wife say it was an accident because the veteran was mistaken for someone else. He was held in custody for a short time just hours before the passengers were supposed to get off the ship.

Jose "Joey" Martinez, a U.S. resident who was in the Coast Guard from 1995 to 2001, said that he and his wife, Tammy Verhas, were sleeping in their cabin when three black-clad officers came in around 6:30 a.m., two hours before the ship was supposed to dock.

"A loud banging on the door woke us up, and then three men with flashlights screamed into our room," Martinez said. “They told me to get out of bed and said, ‘Jose Martinez.’”

Martinez said that men from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection put him in a holding cell, chained him, and walked him through the ship in front of other people. He told them right away that he was a citizen of the United States and had never been in trouble with the law.

Martinez says that police told him that his name was the same as another Jose Martinez, who had warrants out for drug crimes or other crimes. Apparently, he was shocked because before getting on the cruise, he had given the company his passport, Social Security number, Real ID, and other personal details.

Verhas told the military news site Task & Purpose that she started to record on her phone as the agents came in, but a female agent grabbed it. Later, Martinez said that agents told him to delete the video before they would give it back to him.

"They told me, 'She can not get her phone back unless you delete this video,'" Martinez said. "Okay, I did it." I did what they asked of me.

In a letter to Task & Purpose, Carnival Cruise Line said it knew that U.S. Customs and Border Protection had detained a guest on suspicion of involvement. There have been references to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in other reports, but CBP did not respond to requests for comment before the report was released.

After about 90 minutes, the pair was back together. They said the experience was "violating" and "traumatizing," and customs could have handled it better.

"Everyone get off the boat." "They have to show their passports at immigration," Martinez said. "Because of my name, immigration stopped me from coming back into the country after traveling..." Not a big deal.

In this case, Martinez said, his time in the military should not have made a difference. He also said that no one should be treated the way he was. The couple was enjoying their birthdays with a group of friends on a nine-day cruise in the Caribbean when the accident happened.

The story was first reported in Task & Purpose.