Border Patrol data indicate area smuggling attempts off San Diego rose 58 percent between fiscal years 2019 and 2020
According to the affidavit, many of the passengers identified the same man in a photo lineup as the captain of the vessel: Antonio Hurtado. He was treated in a hospital and turned over to border authorities. Officials have said the suspected boat captain is a U.S. citizen but declined to identify him in interviews.
While in custody of Border Patrol at the Imperial Beach station, Hurtado is accused of “deliberately” striking an agent in the head with his knee as the agent tried to secure a shackle around Hurtado’s right ankle, according to the affidavit. The agent suffered “slight redness on his forehead and a burning sensation,” the document reads.
San Diego boat wreck kills 3, shows risks of ocean smuggling
May. 04, 2021 at 6:00 am
ELLIOT SPAGAT, Associated Press
A tractor-trailer slams into an SUV at an intersection on a remote California desert highway, killing 13 of 25 people crammed inside the late model Ford Expedition.
A man dangles a toddler over a border wall near Santa Teresa, New Mexico, allowing her to fall on her face before he disappears into Mexico.
A 40-foot (12.2-meter) cabin cruiser overloaded with 32 people capsizes just off the San Diego coast, killing three and critically injuring another person. The others aboard survived, with one in critical condition.
The incidents, which occurred over the last two months, show how smugglers put migrants at extraordinary peril for profits, whether by car, on foot or at sea.
The incidents, which occurred over the last two months, show how smugglers put migrants at extraordinary peril for profits, whether by car, on foot or at sea. NBC 7’s political reporter speaks with immigration attorney Esther Valdes Clayton about President Biden’s executive orders on immigration.
The Coast Guard on Monday ended its search for survivors of the San Diego boat wreck, which happened on a bright Sunday morning near tidepools of Cabrillo National Monument, a popular spot for tourists and hikers.
All but two people on the boat were Mexican citizens without legal status in the U.S. The others were a Guatemalan citizen without legal status in the U.S. and a U.S. citizen who was identified as the pilot, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Monday. Among the 28 in CBP custody were a 15-year-old boy traveling alone and 21 men and six women, ages 18 to 39.
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In the waters off San Diego, the smuggling boats often cloak their cargoes of migrants under cover of darkness. Only the hum of the panga boat engines signals their approach to slumbering coastal neighborhoods.
But on Sunday morning it was clear and bright when Cale Foy spotted a horrible sight unfolding at the base of the craggy cliffs of Point Loma.
A 40-foot trawler-style boat had crashed into the rocks, spilling men and women and a teenager into the pounding waves and a rip current so strong that it was dragging some farther from shore.
Foy, a naval aircrewman on a hike with his family, didn’t hesitate to dive into the choppy surf.