I strongly suspect the ICE people will be relatively favorable toward this -- it's not skirting any of the laws they care about (drugs, terrorism). You can EASILY win the PR battle to say this is creating wealth in the USA. All the ship administrators need to do is run a law abiding California-registered corp on shore which pays all costs for a private dock, etc., and to comply fully with SOLAS, USCG, and such -- allowing inspections freely, and generally being respectful toward the local maritime community. The big issue is going to be whether existing customs/immigration facilities have the kind of hours the blueseed people want; if not, they have to pay for extra federal service.

I ran tech ops on Sealand 2000-2002 (which is basically "The Platform That Rocked"), and due to a great relationship with the local pilots and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, there were zero problems with them. This wasn't the case in the 60s/70s, which is why they got treated badly.