\u201cWe heard banging at the door, woken out of our sleep, and next thing we know three men with flashlights in their eyes were entering the room, yelling my name and ordering me out of bed and up against the wall,\u201d Martinez told KTAR News 92.3 FM\u2019s Outspoken with Bruce & Gaydos\u00a0on Wednesday. \u201cIt was just chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n
The veteran admitted that he isn\u2019t 100% sure the men who barged into his room were ICE agents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know that it was ICE at all. I saw a lot of different agency badges saying Border Patrol and police state on all of them,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cAnd I just assume that they were ICE or immigration, some sort of enforcement for customs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phoenix veteran \u2018paraded\u2019 off cruise ship before waiting in concrete cell<\/p>\n
Martinez added that once he found his bearings, he told the men that he had his passport and his ID and was a U.S. citizen as well as a veteran, but that didn\u2019t stop them from handcuffing him before removing him from the room.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey took me through the boat, kind of paraded me through there and then out and off the boat,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cIt definitely was embarrassing. I felt humiliated because I was being dragged out in handcuffs by a bunch of agents all in black and I hadn\u2019t done anything wrong. \u2026 Thankfully it was early, but I could see other people in the hallways and in the stairwells were wondering what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
After he was removed from the boat, Martinez was taken to the main terminal and put in a concrete holding cell.<\/p>\n
Despite his identification information being taken with him off the ship, the veteran waited in the cell for about an hour and a half before the officers determined they had the wrong man. He was cleared, led back to the ship and released with no apology.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it is just based off of my name, what other due diligence did they do?\u201d Martinez said. \u201cWhat other information did they use to justify the means of going into the room and pulling me out the way they did?\u201d<\/p>\n
The veteran pointed out that he provided the cruise line with his passport number and airline information, which the agents could have used to identify him properly.<\/p>\n
Martinez noted that he and his wife are still feeling the effects of what happened on the cruise.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t until we were at the airport and we were leaving that the weight of everything that happened hit us like a ton of bricks,\u201d Martinez explained. \u201cIt was devastating to look back on it and it was hard to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n
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