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The sinking of a trawler-like boat loaded with people in search of a better life in the United States was the latest evidence that tougher border security is driving smugglers into the ocean.
Smugglers increasingly employ boats like the one that broke up on a Point Loma reef Sunday to get people and drugs into the United States undetected, according to border officials. The accident sent 32 people into the cold, rough waters, killing four.
Arrests at sea in the San Diego sector nearly doubled in 2020 from the year before, to 1,273 from 662, according to data provided by Shane Crottie, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Local operations seized 118 vessels in 309 smuggling attempts last year, up from 80 boats and 195 attempts in 2019. So far in fiscal year 2021, which began on Oct. 1, there have been 156 local maritime smuggling attempts, 909 arrests and 76 vessels seized.
By NICK MIROFF | The Washington Post | Published: April 3, 2021 Nearly 1,000 people per day are sneaking into the United States without being identified or taken into custody because U.S. border agents are busy attending to migrant families and unaccompanied children while also trying to stop soaring numbers of male adults, according to three U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials familiar with the data. While CBP has never claimed to interdict every border crosser, the number of so-called got-aways recorded in recent weeks is the highest in recent memory, said two of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the data. The agency defines a got away as an individual who is not turned back to Mexico or apprehended, and is no longer being actively pursued by Border Patrol.
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