Migrants landing on California shores to bypass border agents

(NewsNation) — Officials in the San Diego area are urging Congress to pass stricter U.S. border laws amid an increase in migrants arriving on the shores of California’s beaches by boat.

In the most recent incident, a speedboat navigated between surfers and beachgoers before it was abandoned in the suburb of Carlsbad, just north of San Diego.

Several videos of Saturday’s incident circulated on social media, showing the boat running ashore when at least 15 people jumped out and some of them ran to the street and escaped in an awaiting vehicle. Others went into the residential and commercial district, frequented by tourists and locals, Reuters reported.

Evading Border Patrol

While most immigrants who illegally enter the country turn themselves into Border Patrol agents, some groups try to avoid federal agents, which local officials said raises significant concerns.

“Smugglers don’t operate with any regard to public safety,” Carlsbad Mayor Keith Blackburn said during a news conference Monday. “I watched the videos of this boat come in the middle of a Saturday with kids in the water, sunbathers, and the boat pulled up (at a) high speed with zero regard to safety.”

By arriving on boats undetected, officials are not able to identify the people and have no way of knowing if they have a prior criminal history in the U.S. or if they were smuggling drugs.

“We don’t know if these men were simply migrants or whether they were just looking for a better life or if they were on terrorists watchlists,” Blackburn said.

Spike in maritime smuggling

Earlier this year, NewsNation obtained video from a resident in La Jolla, California, who captured a boat carrying a group of migrants landing on a beach. This group also escaped in cars waiting for them.

The number of maritime smuggling events off the California coast increased from 308 in 2020 to 736 in 2023, San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond told Reuters, citing U.S. data.

Calls for increased border security

On Monday, Rep. Mike Levin, a Democrat whose district includes Carlsbad, urged House Republicans to bring to a vote a resolution that would double the range in which Border Patrol agents can operate at sea, from 12 to 24 nautical miles.

Such landings and interdictions at sea are fairly common, but the striking image is rarely captured on video.

One to four such boats are abandoned on San Diego County beaches weekly. The boats are typically loaded with multiple fuel tanks but scant evidence of where they came from or who operated them, said Robert Butler, chief executive of TowBoatUS San Diego, the marine salvage company hired to remove them.

Reuters contributed to this story.